j^EW YOKK 

AND ITS 

INSTITUTIONS 

1609-1871. 




A LIBRARY OF INFORMATION, 

Pertaining to the great Metropolis, past and present, with Historic Sketches 
of its Churches, Schools, Public Buildings, Parks and Cemeteries 
of its Police, Fire, Health and Quarantine Departments 
of its Prisons, Hospitals, Homes, Asylums, Dis- 
pensaries and Morgue and all Municipal 
and private Charitable Institutions. 

BY REV. J. F. RICHMOND, 

(FIVE TEARS CITV MISSIONARY IN NEW YORK.) 



Illustrated -with upwards of 200 ENGRAviNGa 



J^EW YORK: 

E. IB. rrZER-El^^T, SOS :^3rostci-'C7^st3^- 

A- L. BANCKOFT & CO., San Francisco. H. C. WKIGHT & CO., St. Louis. 

J. H. HXJMMEIi, New Orleans. W. T. KBEISTER Chicago. 

1871. 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1S71, by 

E. B. TREAT, 
in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 



■3 



StercotypeJ at the 
WOMEN'S PRINTING HOUSB. 

PKKSB of CdSHINO, BiBDUA & Co. 

644 & 646 Broadway, N. Y. 



PKEFACE. 



" It is too late in the history of the world," one has said, " for an 
author to apologize for publishing a book ;" hence few are now guilty 
of such affectation. Nevertheless, the causes that led to a produc- 
tion, the manner of its preparation, and the object sought in its 
publication, are often matters of interest and profit to a thoughtful 
reader. The volume now offered to the pubKc is uot the result 
of an empty desire to make a book, but to furnish in a concise yet 
sufficiently extended form for ordinary use a history of the American 
metropolis, with the origin, objects, growth, and present condition of 
its niunerous institutions. Many excellent works beariug on this 
subject have been issued during the last twenty years by various 
publishers and authors, and by the separate corporations, varying 
in si2;e from the large quarto to the thirty-cent guide-book. Some 
of these have traced minutely the early history of the island, others 
have sought to exhibit New York as it is, some have traced the 
history of the churches or of a single institution, and one has traced 
the career of most of the societies devoted to private charities. As 
no one of them has, however, attempted to cover the whole subject, 
a small library of these books has been indispensable to one wishing 
to be tolerably conversant with the history of New York and its 
institutions. 

The author has often felt the need of a comprehensive volume, 
giving information ia relation to the prisons, dispensaries, the 
municipal institutions, the cemeteries, hospitals, schools, the parks, 
markets, quarantine, etc., etc. While informing himself on these 



subjects, he was induced to write a series of articles, describing the 
islands in New York harbor and many of the institutions, which 
were published in one of the monthlies of the city. The brief his- 
tories of a few of the institutions given proved highly satisfactory 
to some of the managers, and at their suggestion he at length 
decided to undertake the preparation of this work. 

In examining the several institutions, the author has endeavored 
to dismiss all denominational prejudice, and present honestly the 
history and merits of each. He has in every place looked for some- 
thing commendable, and almost invariably found it. The two hun- 
dred institutions of New York, many of which are colossal enter- 
prises, are highly creditable to the humanity and benevolence of our 
people. The author does not endorse the idea so often advanced, 
that " we have too ma/ny cha/ritahle institutions,''^ nor does he believe 
that they coidd or should be greatly consolidated. Institutions, 
like armies, may be too large for successful management. Many of 
ours are already as large as they ever should be, and the younger 
and smaller ones, if well conducted, are certain to rapidly increase 
in magnitude. We believe every denomination should provide its 
homes for the aged, and found asylums for its orphans. We have 
contemplated with high satisfaction the march of events in this 
direction. 

It has not been our purpose to present any new theory for 
the establishment or management of an institution. An imperfect 
system has often proved eminently successful under judicious 
administration, while the most perfect has repeatedly failed through 
mismanagement. Hence, abstract discussions of theories or systems 
are of uncertain value. No one can wade through many hundred 
published reports of the institutions, as we have done, without being 
impressed with the fact that in the minds of all these managers there 
is a manifest desire for progress and great efficiency. While the his- 
tory of our institutions discloses the fact that provision is made for 
every class of imfortunates, and that the benevolence of the people 



is rapidly increasing, it exMbits, also, most noticeably tlie recog- 
nized power of mind and of moral instrumentalities. Brute force 
no longer reigns. Public justice is no longer a revenge, but an ex- 
pedient for the safety of community, and the reformation of the 
criminal. Sixty years ago truant youth were hurled into a prison, 
where, Tinder the tuition of mature criminals, they soon became 
hopelessly corrupted. Now, in a Refuge or an Asylum — a school 
with a sanctuary— they are impressed with ideas and moral motives, 
and soon rise to usefulness. The blind and the deaf-mute are 
educated, asylums rise for the reformation of fallen women and the 
inebriate, while the halls of the hospital and the prison resound 
with the ministrations of religion. The most advanced in evil are 
still considered -within the reach, and susceptible of, moral influence, 
and for whose recovery scores are wi l l i ng to toil. 

For much valuable information in the preparation of this work, 
the author cheerfully acknowledges his obligation to "A Picture of 
New York in 1848," " Valentine's History of New York," Apple- 
tons' " American Cyclopedia," the " Gazetteer of the State of New 
York," the " Manuals of the Common Council," the " Charities of 
New York," " Half-Century with Juvenile Delinquents," " Public 
Education in the City of New York," " Watson's Annals of New 
York," Miss Booth's " History of the City of New York," and to the 
printed reports of the several institutions whose histories are briefly 
presented. Also to the managers, superintendents, chaplains, and 
physicians of the institutions, who, with a few exceptions, have 
manifested an interest in his \mdertaking, and promptly furnished 
such information as was within their reach. The author has gath- 
ered his statistics from the most reliable sources, and trusts they 
will be found very generally correct. Of the labor and difficulty in 
preparing a work of this kind in a great city of strangers, where 
things are changing with kaleidoscopic rapidity, few have any con- 
ception who have not undertaken it. 

Of the style, he has only to say that he has labored to present 



the largest amount of matter in the smallest space; and has sought 
to minister to the understanding, rather than the imagination. In 
tracing the early history of the island, and the colonial history, lie 
has sought to select, and so group the principal events, as to make 
them readily found, and easily remembered. He has not sought to 
unduly encumber the volume with the names of oflB.cers, or with 
unimportant statistics. It has been his aim to present a portable 
book, richly illustrated, within the reach of all ; containing all the 
information that the masses care to read, of the development of the 
city, the origin and work of its institutions ; in fine, a comprehensive 
work and guide, acceptable alike to the citizen and the stranger. 
How far he has succeeded he leaves for others to judge. 

The volume has been prepared amid the duties of a laborious 
pastorate. During the last five years he has visited, as occasion 
has ofiered, each of the institutions described, and to many of them 
he has been called to ofier consolation to the suffering. The 
reports, statistics, and other items, have been thus collected, and 
any missing facts supplied, when possible, through correspondence. 
The chapters have mostly been written nights, after conducting an 
evening service. The labor of its preparation, notwithstanding the 
numberless perplexities such an undertaking involves, has been a 
pleasant and profitable one — and he can only wish the reader a simi- 
lar experience in its perusal. Hoping the fruits of these snatches 
of time and toil may be made to minister in. some degree to the 
intelligence and good of the people, we send this volume forth on 
its mission to the world. 

J. F. RICHMOND. 

New Yobk, August, 1871. 



CONTENTS. 



en AFTER I. 

PAGE 

Early History of Manhattan 17 

The Great ]\Ietroi)olis 17 

Original Settlers of Manhattan 19 

The Advent of the Wliite Man 21 

The First Grave 22 

Hudson explores the River 23 

Founding of the Dutch Dynasty 25 

Peter Minuits, the First Governor 26 

Wouter Van Twiller 26 

William Keift 27 

Peter Stuyvesant, the Last of the Dutch Governors 28 

The Surrender of the Dutch Dynasty 30 

Manners and Customs 32 

CHAPTER II. 

English Colonial History 36 

Successful Administration of Colonel Nicols 36 

Recapture of Manhattan by the Dutch 37 

The Career and Tragic End of Leisler, the People's Choice. 39 

Captain Kidd, the iSTe-w York Pirate 46 

Rip Van Dam 52 

The Trial and Triumph of Liberty 54 

The Negro Plot of 1741 60 

Triumph of the Anglo-Saxon 65 

Ti-oublous Times Approaching 68 

OHAPTEE III. 

Important Incidents op the Revolution, and later His- 
tory OF New York 72 



XU CONTENTS. 

PAGF 

New York Government at Sea 72 

Plot to Assassinate Washington 73 

Shocking Barbarity of English Officers 74 

Hale and Andre, the Two Spies 80 

Arnold in New York 84 

British Evacuation 89 

The Burr and Hamilton Tragedy of 1804 90 

Eobert Fulton, and the " Clermont " 96 

Public Improvements of 1825 98 

CHAPTER ly. 

New York As It Is 101 

1. Description of the Island 101 

2. Population at Different Periods , . 103 

3. Streets and Avenues of New York 105 

The Plan, the Pavements, and the Modes of Travel. 

WaU Street. 

Broad Street. 

Broadway. 

Fifth Avenue. 

The Boulevard. 

4. The Architecture 114 

Hotels. Astor House, Fifth Avenue, St. Nicholas, Grand 

Central. 
Cooper Institute. 
Academy of Design. 
Theaters. 

The Astor Library. 
American Bible House. 
Publishing Houses. 
The Park Bank. 
Life Lisurance Buildings. 
The City HaU. 

The New York Court House. 
The New York Post Office. 
Stores. Stewart's, Claflin's, Lord & Taylor's, Tiffany's, etc 

5. Business in New York 131 

Causes of Business Failure. 
Business in Real Estate. 
Classes of Rich Men. 
Politicians. 



f 



CONTENTS. XUl 

PAcni! 

Speculators and Stock Gamblers. 
Success of Great Men. 

6. The Churches of New York 142 

Reformed Dutch. 
Protestant Episcopal. 
Lutheran. 
Presbyterian. 
Baptist 
Methodist. 
Jews. 

Roman Cathohcs. 
. Other Denominations and Missionary Societies. 

7. Parks and Squares 158 

8. How New York is supplied with Water 166 

9. The Schools and Colleges of New York 169 

10. Public Security 180 

MetropoUtan PoUce Department. 
Metropohtan Fire Department. 
The Health Department. 
Quarantine Department. 
Maritime Defences. 
United States Navy Yard. 

11. New York in Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter. 198 

12. The Libraries, Monuments, and Markets of New York. 206 

13. The Cemeteries of New York 214 

The Early Cemeteries. 

New York Bay. 

Greenwood. 

Cypress Hills. 

Evergreen. 

Calvary. 

Wood Lawn. 

CHAPTER V. 

Institutions op Manhattan Island and Westchester Co. 281 
Asylums 281 

1. New York Institution for the Deaf and Dumb 281 

2. Institution for the Improved Instruction of the Deaf 

and Dumb 287 

3. The New York Institution for the Blind 289 

4. Bloomingdale Asylum for the Insane 294 

5. The New York Orphan Asylum 299 



XIV CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

6. The Colored Orphan Asylum 302 

7. Orphan Home and Asylum of the Protestant Episcopal 

Church in New York 305 

8. The Sheltering Arms 308 

9. The Eoman Catholic Orphan Asylum 312 

10. New York Asylum for Lying-in Women 315 

11. New York Magdalen Benevolent Asylum 317 

12. Society for Half-Orphan and Destitute Children 321 

13. The Leake and Watts Orphan House 325 

14. The New York Juvenile Asylum 328 

15. The House of Mercy (Protestant Episcopal) 333 

16. Hebrew Benevolent and Orphan Asylum Society..,, 336 

17. House of the Good Shepherd 339 

18. St. Barnabas House 341 

19. The Institution of Mercy (Roman Catholic) 344 

20. Orphan Asylum of St. Vincent De Paul 347 

21. Society for Destitute Roman Catholic Children 349 

22. New York Foundling Asylum (Roman Catholic) 354 

23. The Shepherd's Pold 356 

24. Woman's Aid Society and Presbyterian Home for 

Training Young Girls 357 

25. St. Joseph's Orphan Asylum 359 

Hospitals and Infirmakies 360 

1. The Roosevelt Hospital 360 

2. The Presbyterian Hospital 364 

3. St. Luke's Hospital 367 

' 4. New York Hospital 371 

5. The Hospital of St. Francis 374 

6. St. Vincent Hospital 375 

7. German Hospital and Dispensaiy 379 

8. Mount Sinai Hospital 382 

9. Bellevue Hospital 386 

10. The Nursery and Child's Hospital 389 

11. New York Eye and Ear Infirmary 394 

12. The Woman's Hospital of the State of New York. . . 399 

13. Institution for the Ruptured and Crippled 403 

14. House of Rest for Consumptives 408 

15. New York Infirmary for Women and Children 410 



CONTENTS. XV 

paoe: 

16. New York Medical College and Hospital for Women. . 413 

17. The Hahnemann Hospital 415 

18. The Stranger's Hospital 417 

19. The New York Ophthalmic Hospital 419 

20. The New York Aural Institute 419 

21. Manhattan Eye and Ear Hospital 421 

Homes 423 

1. Association for the Relief of Respectable Aged Indi- 

gent Females 423 

2. Ladies' Union Aid Society of the M. E. Church 426 

3. American Female Guardian Society and Home for the 

Friendless 430 

4. The Home for Incurables 434 

5. Samaritan Home for the Aged 436 

6. The Colored Home 439 

7. The St. Luke's Home 442 

8. The Presbyterian Home 446 

9. Union Home and School for Children of our Volunteer 

Soldiers and Sailors 449 

10. The Female Christian Home 452 

11. The Home for Friendless Women 453 

12. Women's Prison Association of New York (The I. T. 

Hopper Home) 457 

13. Roman Catholic Home for the Aged 461 

14. Chapin Home for the Aged and Infirm 462 

15. Baptist Home for the Aged 463 

16. Home for Aged Hebrews 464 

17. Ladies' Christian Union, or Young Woman's Home. . 467 

18. Hotel for Working Women (A. T. Stewart's) 470 

19. The Water Street Home for Women 471 

Missions, Industrial Schools, and Miscellaneous Societies 477 

1. The Five Points Mission 477 

2. The Five Points House of Industry 483 

3. Woman's Boarding House 486 

4. The Howard Mission and Home for Little Wanderers. 488 

5. The Midnight Mission 492 

6. Wilson's Industrial School 494 

7. The New York House and School of Industry 497 



XVI CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

8. The Children's Aid Society 499 

9. Society for tlie Employment and Relief of Poor "Women. 604 

10. New York Association for Improving the Condition of 

the Poor 505 

11. Young Men's Christian Association 508 

12. New York Prison Association 511 

Prisons and Dispensaries 514 

1. The City Prisons 514 

2. The New York Medical Dispensaries 519 

CHAPTEK Yl. 

Institutions op Blackwbll's Island 523 

1. The Islands and the Authorities 523 

2. The Hospitals of Blackwell's Island 527 

3. The New York Penitentiary 531 

4. The New York Almshouse 536 

6. The New York Workhouse 541 

6. The New York Lunatic Asylum 545 

CHAPTER yn. 

Institutions of Ward's Island 551 

1. The Buildings of the Commissioners of Emigration. ..551 

2. The New York Inebriate Asylum 557 

CHAPTER YIII. 
Institutions of Randall's Island 562 

1. The New York Nurseries 562 

! Buildings for the Healthy Children. 
Infant Hospital. 
Idiot School and Asylum. 

2. Society for the Reformation of Juvenile Delinquents 568 

CHAPTER IX. 
Institutions on Hart Island . . 572 

The Industrial School, and the School-Ship "Mercury".. 572 

CHAPTER X. 
New York Institutions on Staten Island 578 

1. Sailors' Snug Harbor 578 

2. Seamen's Fund and Retreat 582 



/|,;iT:iiiiiiiii,i'iiiniiniflf"l *i77 ~i ' t ^ 




NEW YORK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS. 



CIIAPTErt I. 
EARLY HISTORY OF MANHATTAN. 

rilE GREAT METROPOLIS — ORIGINAL INHABITANTS OF MANHATTAN 

THE ADVENT OF THE. WHITE MAN THE FIRST GRAVE — HUDSON 

EXPLORES THE RIVER FOUNDING OF THE DUTCH DYNASTY PETER 

MINUITS, THE FIRST GOVERNOR — WOUTER VAN TWILLER — WILLIAM 
KEIFT PETER STUYVESANT, THE LAST OF THE DUTCH GOVER- 
NORS THE SURRENDER OF THE DUTCH DYNASTY MANNERS AND 

CUSTOMS. 

THE GREAT IVIETROPOLIS. 



I — 1 "~" '^^v YEW YOEK is the most populous, 
wealthy, and splendid city on the 
American continent. Its location, cli- 
mate, surroundings, and connections have all 
^ l»cen favorable to its growth and greatnes-. 
]' r^i It stands on the little island called by the 
I Indians Manhattan, but Brooklyn, Williams- 
nirgh, Greene Point, Jersey City, BLoboken, Yon- 
p^ I - -^; ,, Ivcrs, and Tarry town, are but its suburbs, containing 
ISX^fe' ^'^6 residences of its laborers, clerks, and merchant 
JM^fel pi-inces, 'Among the earliest localities to feel the 
tread of the European stranger, it has through all 
its history been deservedly popular as a landing depot, and 
now receives fully five-sevenths of all entering the country. 
About live thousand vessels annually enter its bay, which is suf- 



18 NEW YORK AND ITS mSTITUTIONS. 

ficiently broad and deep to anchor the collected navies of the 
world. Its imports and exports are more than fifty per cent 
of the whole United States, and amount to five hundred mil- 
lion dollars per annum ; while the aggregate trade of the city 
reaches nearly four thousand millions. Nearly three hundred 
railroad trains make daily communication with its suburbs. 
The taxable property of the island reported at less than half 
its value reaches nearly a thousaud millions, and the annual 
tax about twenty-five millions. New York is the great store- 
house of the nation's wealth, the centre of its financial oper- 
ations, and of its political, industrial, economic, scientific, 
educational, benevolent, and religious enterprises. New York 
furnishes most of the newspapers, periodicals, books, pictures, 
models of statuary, architecture, machinery, and handicraft, 
for the numerous great States clustered around it, and for 
the broad Canadas. There is poverty in Nevv^ York, deep and 
squalid ; but it is offset by wealth, countless and dazzling. 
There is ignorance here, profound and astonishing; but there 
is learning also, brilliant and extensive as can be found on 
the globe. There are sinners in New York, black and guilty, 
as ever disgraced the world ; but there are saints also, spot- 
•less and benevolent, as ever adorned the Church of God. 
All extremes meet in this great metropolis. Here are the 
denizens of every land, the babblings of every tongue, the 
productions of every clime, the inventions of every craft, and 
the ripened fruit of every desire. At a single glance can be 
seen, as in a vast mirror, pictures of age and infancy, beauty 
and deformity, industry and indolence, wealth and beggary, 
vice and sanctity. 

New York, with its immense libraries, art galleries, daily 
press, literary associations and lectures, its benevolent institu- 
tions, and architectural wonders, is one of the richest fields of 
human culture in the known world. There is on every hand 
something to interest, please, and profit everybody, of what- 
ever country, talent, or temperament. It is a luxury to tarry 
in New York, though it be but for a month, a week, or a day, 



ORIGINAL INHABITANTS OF MANHATTAN. 



19 



to listen to the rninble of its wlieels, the whistle of its en- 
i^ines, the clicking of its telegraphs, the voice of its orators, 
the chime of its bells, the strains of its music, and the roar 
of its artillery. Whose inind is not enlarged as he contem- 
plates the progress of its growth, the rush of its improve- 
ments, and the majestic sweep of its commerce? Who can 
stand upon its elevated observatories and closely contemplate 
its leagues of solid masonry, everywhere thronged with im- 
mortals as important and hopeful as himself, without such 
emotions as he never experienced before? Who can press 
through the whirl of its daily activities, without thinking of 
eternity ; through its neglected sinks, without thinking of 
pandemonium ; or its cultivated parks, without thinking of 
paradise ? All do not live in New York, nor can they ; yet 
every thoughtful American should visit it, snuff its ocean 
breezes, contemplate its massive piles, peep into its institu- 
tions, and gather inspiration from the rush of its activities. 
For any who wish to visit it, or who do not, this book has 
been written. To obtain a correct and adequate knowledge 
■of New York, let us begin at the foundation. 



ORIGINAL INHABITANTS OF JIANHATTAN. 



iind 1 



rfOR many ages Manhattan lay buried 
in these western solitudes, separated 
by a wide and stormy ocean from all 
the bustling activities of the civilized 
world. During a long period it is 
now known to have been the favorite 
resort of the Indians of the Hudson 
i-iver country who gathered here in 
vast numbers, built their rustic vil- 
and spent the summer months in lishing, baking clams, 
untinir. Centuries before civilization found its way to 




20 NEW YORK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS. 

these shores, the broad bay now whitened with the sails of a 
hundred nations was dotted with the canoes of an ingenious 
race, whose history is now too nearly obliterated. Their lands 
they owned in common, the only divisions being between the 
different tribes. Their habitations were constructed of sap- 
lings and bark, with no windows, floors, or chimneys. Their 
villages were located on spots of ground naturally clear of 
wood, and contained from twenty to several hundred fam- 
ilies, which in time of war they surrounded with a fence or 
stockade. To agriculture they gave no attention, save the 
planting of Indian corn, beans, peas, and pumpkins. Both 
sexes were exceedingly fond of display in dress, illustrating 
the old saying, that " man in robes or in rags is a proud 
little animal." The Indian women wore long, black hair, 
plaited and rolled up behind, where it was fastened with a 
band. Their petticoats were ornamented with exquisite taste 
and skill, and would bring a fine sum in our day. This gar- 
ment hung from a belt or waist-girdle made of dressed deer- 
skin, highly ornamented with Indian money called sewant. 
Pendants hung upon their foreheads, necks, and arms, and 
handsomely trimmed moccasins adorned their feet. 

The men were no less attentive to dress. Upon their 
shoulders they hung a mantle of deer-skin, with the fur next 
their bodies, while the outside of the garment displayed a va- 
riety of designs in paint. The edges of the mantle were 
trimmed with swinging points of fine workmanship. Their 
lieads were variously ornamented ; some wearing feathers, 
and others different articles of a showy character. Their 
necks and arms displayed ornaments of elaborate workman- 
ship. They painted themselves in a variety of colors accord- 
ing to their peculiar tastes, rendering their appearance gro- 
tesque and frightful. They were tall and slender, had blacic 
or brown eyes, snow-white teeth, a cinnamon complexion, and 
were fleet and sprightly. They had no care but to provide 
for present subsistence and secure pleasure. They were very 
superstitious, believing in dreams, signs, and various omens. 



THE ADVENT OF THE WHITE MAN. 



21 



They had crude notions of the Great Sj)irit and the Spirit 
L'lnd. When one died they placed his body in a grave in a 
sitting posture, shielding it from contact M'ith the earth by a 
covering of boughs, and from the wild beasts by a burden of 
stone and earth. Byhis side in the grave was also placed his 
implements of war and pleasure, some money and food to 
serve him on his journey to the Sjnrit Land. The science of 
war was his greatest accomplishment, and to die without any 
<;lis|)lay of weakness or fear, his highest virtue. Oratory was 
considerably cultivated among them. When first discovered 
their manners and habits contrasted so strangely with every- 
thing in Europe, that they Avere supposed to possess few, if in- 
deed any, of the affections and higher emotions of humanity, 
but to be more closely allied to tlie lower orders of creation. 
Time has, however, shown their native i-egard for integrity and 
h(;nor, and under the appliances of mental and moral culture, 
the Indian head and heart have proved capable of high at- 
tannnents. 



THE ADVENT OF THE WHITE MAX. 



HE wants of the race had fairly out- 
,^^ grown the cai)acities of the East. An 
J accession of new ideas was demanded; 
human liberty could not be realized 
amid the crushing despotisms of the Old World, 
and benevolence, the divinest grace of the soul, 
languished for want of a broader theatre on 
which to work out and exhibit its sublime de- 
velopments. Divine Providence opened the 
gates to this western world. Varrazzani, a 
Florentine in the em]>loy of the Frencli Govern- 
ment in the sixteenth century (1525), is believed to have been 
the first white man who sailed through the Narrows, and 
looked upon the placid waters of the New York bay and its 
green islands. In 1609 Henry Hudson, an intrepid English 




23 NEW YORK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS. 

navigator in the employ of the Dutch East India Company^ 
sailed from Europe in search of a northwest passage to the 
East Indies. The vessel in which he sailed was a yacht, 
called the " Half Moon," of about eighty tons burthen, and 
would be considered a very diminutive thing for an explorer 
in our day, when canal boats carry three hundred and fifty 
tons. His crew consisted of fifteen or twenty sailors, partly 
of Dutch and partly of English birth. He traversed the 
American coast from Xewfoundland to the Chesapeake bay, 
and then turned again northward to explore more carefully 
the country thus passed. On the 2d of September he rounded 
Sandy Hook, and on the 4th he anchored near the Jersey 
shore in the south bay. As the waters swarmed ^vith fish, a 
boat was lowered to catch some, and the crew is believed to 
have landed on the foam-fringed beach of C-oney Island, and 
to have been the first white men vrho ever set foot on the soil 
of the Empire State. 

It is not wonderful that Hudson forgot his mission, and I)e- 
came enchanted witli the gorgeous scenery everywhere spread 
out before liim. Majestic forests, that had slumbered on 
through the solitudes of the ages, waved on the shores ; the 
little hills were crowned with grass and a variety of fragrant 
flowers; the waters swarmed with finny tribes, while birds of 
strange plumage and song flitted through the air. A hither- 
to unknown race, with strange manners and showy trappings, 
came to his ship in their canoes with corn and other vegeta- 
bles, for which they received from the generous commodore 
axes and shoes, which they hung about their necks for orna- 
ments. 

THE FIRST GRAVE. 

Hudson continued at his anchorage al)out a week, and on 
the 6th of the month dispatched a boat to explore the harbor. 
The little crew passed through the l^arrows and took a view 
of the green hills of Manhattan, after which it sailed out to- 
ward Newark bav. On tlieir return an unfortuiiate collision 



HUDSON EXPLORES THE KIVEE. 23 

occurred between the party and the natives, and an Eui^lish 
sailor named John Coleman was struck in the neck by an ar- 
row and killed. Two others were wounded, Coleman had 
long been associated with Hudson on the seas, and his death 
was greatly regretted. It is probable that the sailors were 
the lirst aggressors. A grave was dng on Sandy Hook, and 
on the 9th of September he was mournfully interred, and 
the spot has since been known as Coleman's Point. 

HUDSON EXPLORES THE RIVER. 

On the 11th of September Hudson sailed through the Nar- 
rows, and after anchoring one day in the New York bay pro- 
ceeded up the river to the present site of Albany, hoping to 
find the long-sought passage to the East Indies. Unwilling 
to believe he had reached the head of navigation, he de- 
spatched a party to sound the river higher up. They pro- 
ceeded eight or nine leagues, and finding but seven feet of 
water they returned with the unwelcome intelligence. The 
voyage up the river, though a disappointment, was a pleasant 
excursion. The rocky Palisades, lofty Highlands, and the 
majestic curves of the sweeping silver current, appear to have 
lingered long in the minds of these bold adventurers. The 
natives gave them a friendly reception, spreading befoi-e them 
the best the country afforded. 

The country was indeed rich. Hudson declared that in 
one Indian village he saw a quantity of corn and beans suf- 
ficient to fill three ships, and that the neighboring fields were 
Iturdened with luxuriant crops. 

Two unfortunate occurrences in this voyage tarnish the 
character of Hudson and his crew. They communicated to 
the red man the fatal, intoxicating bowl. Sailors must always 
have a revel while on shore, and one occurred during their 
stay at Albany— the first on the banks of that beautiful 
river. Secondly, he had rudely captured while at Sandy 
Hook two natives, whom he designed to carry with him to 
Holland. lK)tli escaped on his passage up the river, (m- at 



24: NEW YOKK AND ITS INSilTUTIONS. 

their drunken carousal, aud with manly courage collected 
their forces to resent this breach of faith on his return. A 
fleet of well-filled canoes at Spuyten Duyvil attacked and at- 
tempted to board the vessel. A nuisket shot from the ship 
killed one native and scattered the rest. Opposite Washing- 
ton lleio-hts the attack was renewed as the vessel floated down 




'HAIF MOUN ASCliNLUMt 111 



the stream. Another vollev of musketry stretched nine more 
in the c.ld embrace of death, after> which they desisted. 
The thunder of the white man's weapon, and the deadly 
plun-e of his missile, was more than they could understand. 
A little caution and moderation would have saved tliese stains 
from that otherwise brilliant record of this peerless naviga- 
tor. On the 4th of October Hudson set sail for Holland, to 
make known the facts of his wonderful discover^y. 



FOrNDING OF THE DUTCH DYNASTY. 25 



FOUNDIXG OF THE DUTCH DYXARTT. 




7UDSON had scarcely made known the 
- fj results of his voyage in Holland, ere 



^^^J_[^ ti-ading vessels were fitted out by the 
enterprising merchants, and despatched to 
these shores to reap the golden liarvest held 
out in the valuable fur trade. These experi- 
ments were highly successful, and agents 
were stationed here to continue tlie business 
during tlie absence of the ships. These agents established 
their lieadquarters on the southern point of Manhattan Island. 
The '• United New Netherland Company," composed of a 
number of merchants, was chartered in 1614, for a brief 
period, and in 16'21 the "West India Company,'' larger and 
riclier than the former, was permanently incor];orated. This 
great company was invested with nearly all the prerogatives 
of a general government. They were allowed t(") appoint 
their own governors, settle the ends and foi-ms of administi'a- 
tive justice, make treaties, enact laws, and were granted the 
exclusive control of trade on the whole American coast. In 
1623 a stanch vessel (tlie "New Netherland," which continued 
her trips regularly for more than thirty years) brought over 
thirty families to begin a colony These were landed at Al- 
bany, and a settlement began. Two years later (1625) another 
company came over in two ships, bringing horses, cattle, 
sheep, swine, agricultural implements, and seed grain, and ])e- 
gan a settlement on Manliattan. Tlie first fort was erected in 
1615 by the traders, and stood in the rear of the present Trinity 
church, on the bank of the river, the tides then reaching 
where the western wall of the churchyard now stands. In 
1751 some workmen digging in the bank in the rear of the 
church, discovered a stone wall which was afterwards ascer- 
tained to be the remains of the long-forgotten fort. In 1623 
1 new fort, a block-house, was constructed a little south of 



26 NEW YOKK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS. 

what is now the Bowlinnr Green, which served the matter of 
defence for ten years. 

PETER MLNTJITS, THE FIEST GOVERNOR. 

The affairs of the colony having become sufficiently impor- 
tant to reqnire the presence of a director-general, Peter 
Miuuits, of Westphalia, was appointed in 1624, and immedi- 
ately assumed the reins of government. To conciliate the 
Indians he purchased the entire island of Manhattan for 
twenty-four dollars. The Governor established his residence 
in the block-house, around which he erected strong palisades 
The imports into the colony in 1624 amounted to ^10,61)4^ 
and the exports, wholly of skins and furs, amounted to $V ,000, 
In 1631, the last year of his administration, the imports wcra 
$23,000, and the exports $27,204. During the administra- 
tion of Minuits the rival claims to territory between the 
English and the Dutch were started, but no adjustment was 
reached. Minuits, having been recalled by the company, waa 
in April, 1633, succeeded by 

WOUTER VAN TWILLER. 

Yan Twiller was a relative of Mr. Van Rensselaer, one of 
the principal directors of tlie company, and whose descendants 
have been exteusive landholders in America. It was this 
relationship that secured him his appointment, he having 
been previously but a clerk for the company. In person he 
is described as close-jointed, short, and exceedingly corpulent. 
As some one has said, "He looked as if Dame Nature had 
designed him for a giant, but changed her mind." His ad- 
ministration was marked by the rebuildiug of the fort on a 
greatly enlarged scale ; by the purchase from the Indians of 
"Nut" (now Governor's) Island; also two in the East river 
above Hurl Gate, now known as Ward's and Eandall's 
Islands. Everardus Bogardus, the first cleigyman of Man 



WILLIAM KEIFT, THE TIIIKD GOVERNOR. 27 

hattan whose name has come down to us, is believed i'> have 
come over in the ship with the Governor, Daring this reign 
the first church edifice was erected. It M^as a wooden struc- 
ture, and stood on Pearl street, near Broad. Adam Roeland- 
sen, the first schoolmaster, was introduced about the same 
time. The town was but a hamlet of thatched buildings at 
that period. Hundreds of painted savages still roamed over 
the island, pursuing game through the tangled woodlands, 
and grew their vegetables in its mellow deposits. A steady 
trade with them was continued, in which they exchanged 
their furs and vegetables, receiving too often gin, rum, or 
glass beads in return. Indeed, one has well said, " The kind- 
hearted Dutchmen had conceived a great friendship for their 
savage neighbors, on account of their being pleasant men to 
trade with, and little skilled in the art of makina: a bargain." 

DO 

WILLIAIVI KEIFT, THE THIRD GOVERNOR. 

The ship "Herring" arrived at Manhattan on the 2Sth of 
March, 1638, bringing the newly appointed Governor. The 
affairs of the colony had progressed but slowly. It had been 
founded by a company of merchants, who weighed every- 
thing from a financial standpoint; high tariffs were laid upon 
the industry of the settlers, which produced dissatisfaction 
and led to frequent alter(;ations between the people and the 
authorities. They were held together, however, by the fear 
of a savage enemy constantly prowling around them. Keift's 
administration continued nine years, and became unpopular 
and unprofitable to the comj)any in consequence of the 
Indian war, into which he was unfortunately drawn. The 
first advance toward popular government was, however, taken 
under his administration. The people were allowed to elect 
eight representatives to assist the Governor in administering 
the affairs of the colony. Building lots were then first granted 
the citizens. In 1642 a stone tavern Avas erected on what is 
now Pearl street, which afterwards became the Citv Hall. A 



28 NEW YOKE AND ITS INSTITUTIONS. 

stoiie cliurcli was also erected in the south-east corner of the 
fort. Governor Keift, having been relieved from office, set 
sail for Holland in the ship " Princess," July, 1647. Several 
prominent persons were on board, among whom was Dominie 
Bogardus, who had married a wealthy widow on Manhattan, 
but had resolved to make one mure visit to the fatherland. 
The voyage proved disastrous. The pilot mistook the chan- 
nel, entered the Severn, and wrecked his vessel on the coast 
of Wales. Of the one hundred persons on board but twenty 
were saved. 



PETER STUTV^ESANT, THE LAST OF THE DUTCH GOVERNORS. 

Success had not particularly crowned the undertaking of 
the company. It was computed that the West India 
Company had, between the years 1626 and 1644, expended 
upon the settlement over two hundred thousand dollars above 
all returns made to it, and that not more than one hundred 
men remained in the city, exclusive of the officers and 
employes of the company, at the close of the Indian war in 
1645. Stuyvesant, it was hoped, would retrieve these losses, 
and secure the enlargement and stability of the town. He 
had been tlie director of the Dutch colony at Cura9oa, where, 
in a battle with the Portuguese, he had lost a leg. He was a 
brave man, with considerable breadth of mind and great force 
of character. He was also imperious, impatient of contradic- 
tion, absolute and despotic in his notions of government. 
He, however, excelled all his predecessors in efforts for the 
advancement of the colony, and the good of the people, 
among whom he settled after the English conquest, and re- 
mained a private and amiable citizen until the close of his 
life, leaving an honorable posterity not extinct at this day. 
His administration was characterized by great vigor, and the 
town soon exhibited marked improvements. As is usual, 
some of his subjects were pleased, and some dissatisUcd. 
Drunkenness and profanity were strictly prohibited, and no 



PETER STUYVESANT, THE LAST DUTCH GOVERNOR. 29 

liquors were to be sold to the Indians. Other abuses were 
speedily corrected. In 1648 he established a weekly- 
market ; in 1(352 the city was regularly incorporated ; the 
next year the palisades on the line of AVall Street were 
erected, and in 1657 the streets were laid out and named. 
The population of the place had also wonderfully increased. 
But the martial tires of the old Governor still slumbered in 
his capacious frame, and waited an opportunity for an out- 
burst. This was soon given. Three nationalities had estab- 
lished their colonies on these shores. The English in Vir- 
ginia and Maryland, and on the eastern coast, had protested 
against the establishment of New Amsterdam, which divided 
their colonies. The Swedes established themselves on the 
banks of the Delaware, under the protest of the Dutch. The 
Swedes built Fort Christina as a matter of common defence, 
and the Dutch, to protect their own trade in that locality, 
erected in 1650 Fort Casimar, near the mouth cf the Brandy- 
wine, and iMit five miles from this Swedish fortification. 
Kegarding this an encroachment, the Swedish Governor in 
1654 adroitly captured the fort, changed its name, disarmed 
and paroled the little garrison. The next year Stuyvesant 
received orders to recapture the fort, and drive the Swedes 
entirely from the river. This was a welcome message to the 
old M'arrior. 

The whole force of Xew Amsterdam was soon ali<'at in 
seven ships of war, with the intrepid 
Go\ernor as commander, and the 
whole Swedish territory speedily 
capitidated. But the victorious 
Dutch had no time to rejoice over 
their successes. Two thousand 
armed savages, taking advantage 
of the defenceless state of the 
colony to avenge the shooting of a 
squaw some time previously, overran stuyvesant-s seal. 

the town, after wliich they departed to Ilobokeu, Bavonia, 




30 NEW YORK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS. 

and Staten Island, and in three days murdered one hundred 
of the inhabitants, carried into captivity a hundred and fifty 
more, besides destroying property vahied at two hundred 
thousand guilders. Stuyvesaut soon returned, and while he 
made every preparation for a vigorous war against the In- 
dians, he at the same time so appeased them with kindness 
and presents, that from motives of fear and friendship they 
were glad to conclude a peace by the release of the captives. 
His power over the Indians was always wonderful. 

THE SURRENDER OF THE DUTCH DYNASTY. 
A Still greater danger had long hung over the Dutch 
colony. The English had from the first claimed the entire 
continent as having been discovered by Cabot. In vain did 
tlie Dutch urge their own discovery, their title honorably 
secured from the Indians, and the fact of possession. The 
Plymouth colony established at Kew Haven spread gradually 
over the country, until it held much of Long Island and 
AVestchester. The Virginia colony absorbed the territory on 
the Delaware so triumphantly wrested from the Swedes. 
Stuyvesant's appeals to the company for the means of defence 
were unheeded. The accession i>i Charles II. to the Eng- 
lish throne, in 1664, brought matters to a crisis. He granted 
to his brother James, Duke of York, a patent of the territory 
lying between the Connecticut river and Delaware bay, cov- 
ering the whole of the Dutch dominion in America. The 
Duke immediately despatched four ships, with four hundred 
and fifty soldiers, to take possession of the territory he had 
thus acquired. Late in August, 1664, the little fleet cast 
anchor near Coney Island. The soldiers were landed and took 
possession of the block-house on Staten Island, and soon cut 
off Manhattan from the neighboring shores. The resolute 
Governor made what preparation possible for defence, but 
the colony was not able to resist a siege. The palisades, 
effectual enough against the Indians, were of little use against 
English troops. The fort itself was a mere sham. The pop- 



THE SURRENDER OF THE DUTCH DYNASTY. 31 

Illation aiiionnted to about lif teeu luindred, and conkl furnish 
but a few hundred, at most, able to bear arms ; and to crown 
all, not over six hundred pounds of gunpowder could be col- 
lected in the colony. The town, standing on the southern 
point of the island, was exposed from all sides to the rakino- 
lire of the fleet, and must have soon been one smoking ruin. 
Still, the brave Governor could not brook the thought of snr- 
render, and as soon as the fleet anchored in the bay, he sent 
a messenger to inquire what object they had in thus entering 
a friendly port. The commander returned a reply asserting 
the claim of Great Britain to the territory, and demanded an 
immediate surrender, giving assurances that all submissive 
inhabitants would be secured in their lil)erty and estates. 
Having promised to give a reply on tlie following morning, 
the Governor convened his council and the city magistrates, 
and informed them of the demand, but withheld the letter 
containing the terms of capitulation. A demand for this 
document on tlie part of the l)urgomasters greatly enraged 
the Governor, who dissolved tlie assembly and declared his 
purpose of defending the town. The English commander 
nnderstood the condition of the colony. Knowing its de- 
fence utterly impossible, and that secret heart-burnings had 
long existed among a portion of its inhabitants, he issued an 
artful proclamation to the inhabitants, and made arrangements 
for recruiting in the settlement. The landing of troops at 
Brooklyn to storm the town, and the anchoring of the ships 
in front of the fort, convinced all that the crisis had fully 
arrived. Crowds gathered around the venerable wooden- 
legged Governor, among whom was his own son, pleading for 
the stay of hostilities by the surrender of the town. For a 
time he was inflexible, saying, "iT^?/ I would rather he carried 
out dead ; " but he at length yielded, performing no doubt the 
most painful service of his life. On the morning of the Sth 
of September, 1664, Stuyvesant marched his troops outof Fort 
Amsterdam with the honors of war, and the English took pos- 
session and raised on the Aagstaff the ensign of their country. 
Thus closed the reign of the Knickerbockers, after holding 



32 



NEW YOKK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS, 



Manhattan fifty-five years, and establishing a flonrishing and 
interesting colony. Governor Stnyvesant soon after de- 
parted for Holland to give an account of his administration 
to the West India Company, after which he returned, lived 




STIT^-KSANT IIUYS. 

and died on a large farm he had previously purchased in the 
Bowery. A large pear-tree of his planting stood until three 
years ago at the corner of Third avenue and Thirteenth 
street. This monument of the good old days has now disap- 
peared — the last of the Knickerbockers. 



5IANNERS AND CUSTOMS. 



s^T^^T^lHE first money in use on Manhattan was 
' ' ' Warnpiom, i.e., small beads made of 

shells, sometimes wrought into belts 
and worn as ornaments. Wampum was 
of two kinds, white and black or pur- 
ple color, the dark colored being twice 
as valuable as the other. Wampum 
consisted of cylindrical pieces of testa- 
ceous fishes, (hard-sliell clams or oys- 
ters,) a quarter of an inch in length, and in diameter less thaii 




MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. 33 

a pipe stem, drilled lengthwise so as to be strung upon a 
thread. A piece of white wampum was counted equal to a 
farthing. The Dutch and English traders carried into the 
interior their knives, combs, scissors, needles, awls, looking- 
glasses, hatchets, guns, blankets, etc., and sold them to the na- 
tives for seawant or wamjpum, and with this wampum returned 
and purchased their furs, corn, venison, etc., on the seaboard, 
thus artfully avoiding the great labor of transporting the furs 
and grain through the country. This circulating medium 
was used in New England also, and was finally regulated by 
civilized governments. 

The Dutch kept five festivals, Kerstydt (Christmas), 
Nieuw jar (New Year), Paas (the Passover), Pinxter (i.e., 
"Whitsuntide), and San Claas (i.e., Saint Nicholas, or Christ- 
kinkle day). Christmas was a great day for shooting-matches. 
Turkeys and other fowls were placed at a long distance from 
the marksman, every one paying for his shot and bearing 
away all he hit. This festival is still continued in New York, 
the shooting having been superseded by Church services and 
festivals, in which the Christmas tree, containing a present 
for each expected to attend, forms the principal object of at- 
traction. Presents are given profusely in all circles. Mer- 
chants are expected to give presents to all in their employ, 
and often expend thousands of dollars in carrying out tliis 
costly programme. The ingenious stories of Santa Claus are 
not repeated as much as formerly, though the children are as 
much interested in them as were those of the preceding gen- 
erations. 

Paas was long very generally observed by the Dutch, and 
colored boiled eggs may still be found in many families in 
the city and country on the return of this festival. Pinxter 
is scarcely remembered. New Year was the great festival 
of the whole season. The tables were spread with cakes, 
cider, wines, indeed everything calculated to tempt and sat- 
isfy the appetite. Everybody received calls, and all went to 
see their friends. General Washington resided in New York 



34 NEW YORK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS. 

during the first year of his Presidency, in the Franklin 
House, at the head of Cherry street. On the first day of 
January, 1790, he was waited on by most of the principal 
gentlemen of the city. They were severally introduced to the 
President, who received them with marked cordiality, and 
after an agreeable interchange of thought they severally with- 
drew, greatly pleased with the appearance and manners of 
the President, to most of whom he was a personal stranger. 
In the evening the ladies came to call on Mrs. "Washington. 
The evening was beautiful, and many came. All were cor- 
dially received, and after being seated, coffee, plain and plum 
cake were served, which was followed by familiar conversa- 
tion, in which Mrs. Washington was conspicuous. The Gen- 
eral, who had been greatly pleased with the calls of the gen- 
tlemen, was present during the evening. Not being familiar 
with their nsages, he ventured to ask whether this matter was 
casual or customary, to which a lady replied that it was their 
annual custom, received from their Dutch forefathers, and 
which they had always commemorated. After a short pause, 
he observed, " The highly favored situation of New York, 
will, in process of years, attract emigrants, who will gradually 
change its customs and manners ; but let whatever changes 
take place, never forget the cordial, cheerful observance of 
New Year's day." Emigration has not changed this ancient 
custom. English, Irish, Scotch, Jews, and Gentiles, rich and 
poor, continue the practice ; tables groan under a burden of 
ri(;h viands and cakes, costly wines, lemonade, and rare fruits. 
Nearly every house is still open for callers, who begin their 
circuits in the morning, many of them continuing their 
travels until the small hours of the night. While there are 
some things pleasant and desirable in this ancient custom, it 
is also attended Avith so much excess, that the first day of Jan- 
uary closes annually in New York upon more tipsy dandies 
than can be found in almost any other city in Christendom. 

Thanksgiving is now very generally observed in New 
York, services beinsr held in most of the churches, and all 



MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. 35 

business is suspended. This custom originated in New Eng- 
land, and has gradually spread its way through most of the 
country. 

Independence Day, originating with the publication of the 
Declaration in Philadelphia, is a great holiday in New York. 
The incessant discharge of fire-arms from early morn 'till 
evening, is very distressing to people of weak nerves. The 
brilliant fireworks during the evening of tlie 4th of July, in 
the parks and squares, are not excelled in the world. 

The Dutch mansions were complete models of neatness and 
order. The floors had no carpets, and were almost worn out 
with repeated scourings of soap and white sand. Their par- 
lors were choicely kept, and their tables contained no rich 
plate. 

Dancing was a common recreation among the Dutch. The 
supper at a dance consisted of chocolate and bread. 

All marriages among the ancient Dutch had to be pub- 
lished three weeks beforehand in the churches, otherwise a 
license must be purchased fi-om the Governor. This latter 
was considered costly. 

A good suit of clothes worn at church was invariably taken 
off and laid awav on the return. 

The Dutch were fond of posterity. A father sometimes 
o^ave his son a bundle of goose-auiUs, telling him to give one 
to each of his sons. 

Gentlemen in good circumstances thouglit nothing of car- 
rying a bag containing a hundred pounds of meal through the 
streets, and would have been ashamed of a porter. 

It was the custom of the early Dutch merchants and spec- 
ulators to make their fortunes out of their customers and 
nothing from their creditors. Alas ! how the world changes ! 



NEW YORK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS. 



CHAPTER II. 
ENGLISH COLONIAL HISTORY. 

SUCCESSFUL ADMINISTRATION OF COL. NICOLS RECAPTURE OF MAN- 
HATTAN BY THE DUTCH THE CAREER AND TRAGIC END OF LEISLER, 

THE people's CHOICE CAPTAIN KIDD, THE NEW YORK PIRATE 

EIP VAN DAM THE TRIAL AND TRIUMPH OF LIBERTY THE NEGRO 

PLOT OF 1741 TRIUMPH OF THE ANGLO-SAXON TROUBLOUS TIMES 

APPROACHING, 




'UCH dissatisfaction was very reason- 
ably expected with this sudden change 
of authority, though it proved, upon 
the whole, quite satisfactory to the 
Dutch colony. The inhabitants were 
confirmed in their right of property 
and their custom of inheritance; 
they were allowed to continue their 
commerce with the Holland merchants, liberty of conscience 
in matters of religion was not abridged, and they were prom- 
ised exemption from impressment in war service against any 
nation whatsoever. They were allowed to elect inferior offi- 
cers and magistrates, and any who were dissatisfied were per- 
mitted to leave the country. The first English Governor, 
Col. Richard Nicols, established the system of trial by jury, 
a hitherto unknown procedure in America. The Dutch Gov- 
ernment at that period was reputed the most liberal govern- 
ment in Europe ; but, unfortunately, the Government had 
never had control of the colony, that having been committed 
to the mercenary management of a private mercantile cor- 
poration. Every precaution to strengthen the hold of the 
new government on the inhabitants was taken. All grants of 



KECAl'TUEE OF MANHATTAN BY THE DUTCH. o7 

Uiiid previously made were renewed or confinned, and all 
individual interests were carefully guarded. All property 
belonging to the West India Company was confiscated and 
sold at auction to the inhabitants. This linked the new ad- 
ministration to their titles, and made it essential to the posses- 
sion of their property. It was not until July 12, 1665, that the 
Governor felt safe in attempting any decided change in the 
government. On that day he issued his proclamation revok- 
ing the old system of burgomasters and schepens, intro- 
ducing in their place a Mayor, a Board of Aldermen, and a 
Sheriff, all of whom were to be appointed by the Governor, 
The name of the city was also changed to New York, in honor 
of the Duke. Colonel Nicols, after a successful administra- 
tion of four years, was at his own request relieved from duty, 
and was succeeded in office by Colonel Francis Lovelace, an 
officer of the English army. 



RECAPTURE OF MANHATTAN BY THE DUTCH. 

N' 1672 war again broke out between England 
and Holland. The sturdy Dutch having 
waited anxiously for an opportunity to re- 
cover their lost possessions in America, fitted 
out a squadron of five ships to cruise on the 
American coast, with instructions to inflict as 
much injury as possible upon the English colony aiid 
commerce. Though the authorities at New York 
:ere apprised of this fact, little preparation for defence 
was undertaken. Governor Lovelace appears to have 
been a moderate, good-natured genius, vastly more interested 
in trips of pleasure than the affairs of government ; hence, 
he scrupled not to leave for distant parts of the country, 
though the city was liable to be surprised at any hour with 
the appr<)ach of a hostile fleet. In his absence the fort was 




38 NEW YORK A^^D ITS INSTITUTIONS. 

left under command of Captain John Manning, a white- 
feathered hero, full of pomp and bluster, every way capable 
of eating a rich dinner and of adjusting a pair of shoulder- 
straps, though quite incapable of conducting any ordinary 
correspondence or of resisting an attack. 

In February, 1673, a rumor reached the city that the en- 
emy's fleet had been discovered off the coast of Virginia. 
The Governor was luxuriating among his rich friends in 
"Westchester. A hasty summons from Captain Manning 
brought him to the city, where several hundred troops were 
mustered, but as no enemy appeared they were soon dispersed. 
In July he planned atrip to Connecticut. (A New York sum- 
mer vacation.) A few days after his departure, two Dutch 
men-of-war appeared off Sandy Hook. The affrighted Man- 
ning again sent a dispatch to the Governor, and caused the 
drum to be beaten through the streets for recruits. The only 
noticeable response was from the Dutch malcontents, who^ 
ovei-joyed at the sight of the flag of the " fadderlandt," on 
pretence of doing service, entered the fort and spiked many 
of the cannon, after which they departed, leaving the chicken- 
hearted captain to fight his battle on his own line and in his 
own way. Meanwhile the enemies' ships advanced in front 
of the fort, and after some interchange of communications, 
in which Manning exhibited the greatest imbecility, the city 
with its fortifications was surrendered without firing a gun in 
its defence. The pusillanimous conduct of Manning, in sur- 
rendering the city without the slightest resistance, was a 
matter of great mortification to the English people, who then, 
as now, prided themselves on their military prestige. After 
the English authority was again established on the island, 
Manning was arraigned and tried by court-martial for cow- 
ardice and treachery, and was convicted. His sword was 
broken over his head in front of the City Hall, and he was 
incapacitated from holding any station of trust or authority 
under His Majesty's government ever afterward. 

The Dutch commanders appointed Captain Anthony Colve 



THE CAREER AND TRAGIC END OF LEISLEK. 



30 



Governor, who changed the name of the city to New Orange 
and proceeded to reorganize the municipal institutions, con- 
forming them again to those of the fatherLand. Expectin^: 
an attack from the English to recover their lost territory. 
Governor Colve with commendable dispatch repaired the 
palisades, improved the fortifications, and placed the city in 
a good state of defence. But the Dutch were not long al- 
lowed to enjoy the fruit of this toil. The treaty of peace 
signed February 9, 1674, between England and Holland, re- 
stored Manhattan to the English crown, and on the 10th of 
November, 1674, the Dutch Government departed from 
American soil for the last time. 



THE CAREER AND TRAGIC END OF LEISLER, THE PEOPLE'S 
CHOICE. 




^^S soon as the final cession of Man- 
hattan to the English dominion had 
been secured by the j^eace treaty with 
the Holland Government, the Duke 
of York applied for and recei\ed 
from his brother Charles II. the 
confirmation of his former title to 
the country, and immediately ap- 
pointed Sir Edmond Andros Gov- 
ernor of the province. Andros, though a man of ability, was 
the unscrupulous tool of his master, the Duke of York, and 
his arbiti-ary tyranny over the people soon rendered his 
government immensely unpopular. During his administra- 
tion seven public wells were dug, a new dock was constructed, 
new streets were laid out, and the " bolting act '' passed. 
This latter granted the inhabitants of Manhattan the exclu- 
sive monopoly of bolting flour, a business which, twenty years 
later, furnished employment and subsistence to nearly two- 



iO NEW YORK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS. 

thirds of the population. Andros was recalled in 16S3, and 
Colonel Thomas Dongan appointed in his stead. The death 
of Charles II., in 1685, brought the Duke of York to the 
English throne under the title of James II. The great polit- 
ical battles between Catholicism and Protestantism in Europe 
were now fiercely renewed, James seeking with every ap- 
pliance the restoration of the Eoman Catholic religion in 
England, as it had existed at the beginning of the reign of 
Henry YIII, The Ameriean colonies were largely peopled 
with Protestant refugees, who had fled the tyranny of the Old 
World, and who could but take a lively interest in the pending 
struggle. It was known that Governor Dongan, though a man 
of moderation and caution, was a zealous Catholic, who had 
received instructions from his master to favor the introduction 
of the Roman Catholic religion into the province. As the 
contest proceeded in England, the tides of public feeling ran 
high in this country. The climax was reached on the recep- 
tion of the news of the landing and proclamation of the 
Prince of Orange, and the abdication and flight of the former 
king. The revolution in England immediately extended to 
this country. The Bostonians rose to arms, deposed the Eng- 
lish officers, sent them back to the mother country, and estab- 
lished a popular government. New York was more conserv- 
ative. Governor Dongan, too tolerant in his policy to please 
the king, had been superseded a short time previously by 
Francis Nicholson, another Catholic, who, on the reception of 
the news, betook himself on board a vessel lying in the harbor, 
and sailed for England, leaving the colony without a ruler. 
Two political parties quickly came to the surface, each of 
which avowed its loyalty to the reign of AVilliam and Mary. 
One consisted of the members of the late Council, supported 
by a few wealthy citizens, and claimed that the colonial gov- 
ernment was not subverted by the revolution in England, or 
by the flight of the Governor; that the second in authority 
with the Council inherited the power to administer the gov- 
ernment, until matters should be deflnitely settled by the 



THE CAREER AND TRAGIC EXD OF LEISLER. 41 

crown. The other party, which embodied the masses of tlie 
people, maintained that by the overthrow of the late king, and 
the abandonment of the country by the Governor, the previous 
system of government was totally overthrown, and that the 
people were empowered to appoint a provisional government 
of their own. But in times of general and intense excitement 
there is little chance for discussion ; prejudice and inclination 
are immensely more potent than logic. The public money of 
the city, amounting to £773 12.?., had been deposited for safe 
keeping in the fort, which was garrisoned with a few troops. 
A crowd of citizens took possession of the fortification with- 
<5ut resistance, after which Jacob Leisler, senior captain of the 
trainbands, was unanimously appointed to take command of 
the same, with power to preserve the peace, and suppress 
rebellion until instructions were received from England. 
The gentleman tlius elevated to be the principal hero, and 
bear in the end the sad penalty of this exciting epoch, was 
one of the oldest and wealthiest of the Dutch burghers. lie 
had entered Mauliattan as a soldier in the service of the West 
India Company in 1G60, and soon after married the widow of 
Cornelius Yanderveen-, and thus became uncle of Stephanus 
Yan Cortlandt and Nicholas Bayard, who were afterwards 
the principal instigators in his execution. He had already 
held a commission in the colony, and fully demonstrated his 
capacity and loyalty. No sooner had he taken possession of 
the fort, however, than active measures were undertaken by 
the opposite party to subvert his administration. Nicholas 
Bayard became the principal opponent of the Leislerian Gov- 
ernment. Bayard was the cousin of Mrs. Peter Stuy vesant, of 
genuine Holland origin, had by mercantile pursuits amassed a 
large fortune, and had long been an active politician. He had 
served as Mayor, and was at this time colonel of the train- 
bands, of which Leisler was senior captain. His party having 
failed to get possession of the fort or custom-house, he next 
tried, but in vain , to disaffect the militia. Finding his influence 
gone, and alarmed for his personal safety, he, with Colonel 



42 NKW YORK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS. 

Peter Schuyler, took refuge at xVlban^-, where they labored in- 
dustri(nisly to excite hostility to Leisler and his party. Leisler 
was supported by Massachusetts, and the General Court of 
Connecticut, by the citizens of other provinces ; but the au- 
thorities at Albany, probably through the influence of Bayard, 
refused for a period to recognize him. His administration 
appears to have been just, and considering the times, moder- 
ate. The first Mayor elected by the people was under his 
administration. 

France having espoused the cause of the exiled king, war 
broke out on the frontier between the French of Canada and 
their Indian allies, and the English colonies. The thriving 
settlement at Schenectady was burned, and nearly all the 
inliabitants massacred in one night. These depredations led 
to a general movement on the part of the authorities at 
Albany, New York, and New England, and two expeditions 
were fitted out, one against Montreal, and the other against 
Quebec. Neither of these accomplished their mission, and 
Leisler's administration can hardly be regarded a success 
though his motives were certainly only those of a genuine 
patriot. 

In December, 16S9, a messenger from the English Govern- 
ment arrived at Boston with a communication addressed *' To 
Francis Nicholson, or, in his absence, to such as for the time 
being takes care for preserving the peace and administering 
the laws in his Majesty's province of New York." Anxious 
to obtain possession of the letter and what authority it might 
confer. Bayard and one or two of his adherents secretly en- 
tered New York, and on the arrival of the messenger asserted 
their pretensions and demanded the missive. After some 
deliberation, however, the messenger delivered the package 
to those actually in power. The document authorized the 
person in power to take the chief command as Lieutenant- 
Governor, and to appoint a council to assist him in conduct- 
ing the government. Leisler carried out these instructions. 
A riot ensued, in which an attempt was made to seize Leis- 



THE CAREER AND TRAGIC END OF LEISLER. 43 

ler, after which he issued a warrant for the arrest of Bayard 
and others, on the charge of high misdemeanor against his 
Majesty's authority. Ba^^ard was arrested and thrown into 
prison, and on the following day a court was called to try 
him for treason. Finding his affairs suddenly brought to 
extremities, Bayard confessed his faults, and supplicated for 
mercy, which was granted, though he was retained a prisoner 
for fourteen months. Early in his administration, Leisler 
had sent a report of his doings to the English throne. It 
was, however, written in broken Englisli, a language he had 
never mastered ; and as every disappointed English Governor 
stood ready to malign his motives and decry his usurpations, 
a violent prejudice was probably excited against him. Late 
in the year 1690, the Prince of Orange appointed Henry 
Slonghter Governor of New York, and Major Richard -In- 
goldsby Lieutenant-Governor, who set sail for America with 
several ships and a small body of troops. A storm separated 
the vessels at sea, and Ingoldsby landed two months previous 
to the arrival of his superior. On landing, Ingoldsby an- 
nounced the appointment of Slonghter, and demanded the 
fort for the accommodation of his troops. Leisler expressed 
his willingness to surrender the fort and his entire authority, 
but very properly demanded that previous to it the new- 
comer should produce his royal commission. The papers 
were, however, in the possession of Slonghter, and no sort of 
credentials could be produced. Leisler then offered the City 
Hall for the accommodation of the English troops, declining 
to surrender the fort until an officer duly commissioned ar- 
rived. Ingoldsby, with a haughty dignity, such as no wise 
officer sensible of the proper forms of authority would ex- 
hibit, issued a proclamation calling on the people to assist 
him in overcoming all opposition to his Majesty's command. 
This was bravely replied to by Leisler on the following day, 
charging whatever of bloodshed should ensue to his oppo- 
nent, and forbidding him to commit any hostile acts against 
the city, fort, or province, at his utmost peril. A cloud of 



44 XEW YOEK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS. 

wild agitation and uncertainty hang over the city for seven 
long weeks, until on the 19th of March the missing vessel, 
with the storm-tossed Governor, entered the harbor. Slough- 
ter immediately landed, selected his coimcil from among the 
enemies of Leisler, and proceeded to the City Hall, where he 
published his commission. Having sworn in the members 
of his council, he directed Ingoldsby to demand possession 
of the fort, though it was now eleven o'clock at night. Leis- 
ler, to avoid any deception, dispatched Ensign Stoll, who had 
seen Sloughter in England, with a message to the Governor, 
charging him to eye him closely. A second demand was 
made for the fort, and Leisler dispatched the Mayor and 
another prominent officer to make to the Governor all neces- 
sary explanations, and to transfer the fort. On entering his 
presence they were, however, handed over instantly to the 
guards, without being allowed to speak. Another ineffectual 
demand for the fort was made, after which the matter was 
allowed to rest until the next day. 

On the following morning, Leisler addressed a polite and 
congratulatory letter to the Governor, asking to be released 
from duty, and offering tlie fort with all its arms and stores, 
expressing also his willingness to give an exact account of 
all his doings. An officer dispatched to receive the fort was 
ordered to release Bayard and Nichols, who were still in con- 
finement, and to arrest Leisler and his principal adherents. 
Bayard and Nichols were at once admitted and sworn into 
the council, and Leisler and eleven of his friends arrested. 
Two weeks later they were arraigned for trial. Leisler set 
up no defence, alleging that the court had no authority in the 
case — that the king of England only could decide whether 
he had acted without his authority or not. Leisler and his 
son-in-law, Milborne, who had acted as Secretary, were pro- 
nounced usurpers and traitors, and condemned to deatli. On 
the 16th of May, 1691, amid a storm of rain, while the dissi- 
pated Governor and his satellites were revelling at a drunken 
feast, they were brought out for execution. The scaffold 



THE CAREER AND TRAGIC END OF LEISLER. 45 

was erected on the ground now covered bj the New York 
post office, and in full view of Leisler's fine residence. Mil- 
borne offered a prayer for the king, queen, and the officers 
of the province. Leisler delivered a long address, which dis- 
played the workings of a fine mind, and a good heart, after 
which he died without a murmur, amid the tears and lamen- 
tations of the populace. 

Thus closed the career of the first New York Governor 
elected by the people. Leisler does not appear to have been 
unduly ambitious for political honors. He was a patriotic, 
honest, high-minded Dutchman ; wholly destitute of the arts 
and intrigues of the modern politician. Chosen by his coun- 
trymen, like Washington at a later period, he devoted him- 
self with all his energies for the advancement of the common 
weal, and died a martyr to the cause he served. Possessed 
of great influence, he incited no insurrection to prevent his 
execution ; and wasted none of his vast estate in purchasing 
a pardon. He did not cringe and beg for life as his enemies 
had meanly done ; but asserting his sincerity, like an honest, 
brave man he expired, trusting in God, and praying for his 
enemies. His execution, ordered over the signature of a 
drunken Governor, was the first ripe fruit of that spirit of 
English usurpation which culminated at length in the 
numerous gory fields of the American Revolution. Four 
years after his death, his worthy son, after a series of well-timed 
efforts, secured from the EngKsh Parliament the triumphant 
reversal of the attainder, and the complete exoneration of 
his father from the charge of usurpation. 




46 NEW YORK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS. 



CAPTAIN KIDD, THE NEW YORK PIRATE. 

,NE melancholy event in human 
history t(jo frequently givcB 
place to another still more ap- 
palling. The frontier war be- 
gun during the administration 
• >f Leisler, continued its ravages 
for a number of years after 
his death. Governor Fletcher 
wisely formed an alliance with 
the Iroquois Indians, who proved a valuable defence against 
these hostile inroads. It was clearly the design of the French 
Government to harass and cripple the frontier settlements, 
until such times as it could overwhelm the cities, and so wipe 
out the English authority from the country. During these per- 
ilous years, great losses and calamities were inflicted on the 
colonies, and the people sighed for security and rest. But 
another evil, equally disastrous to the development of the city, 
had long preyed upon its commerce. The slave trade had been 
considered legitimate since the founding of the colony, and the 
Dutch have the unenviable honor of introducing this iniquit- 
ous system. During the continuance of the Dutch dynasty, 
however, this trade appears to have been carried on by transient 
Dutcn traders, who ootained tne blacks from the Africao. 
kings, on tne coasts of Guinea, and to have formed no part 
of the regular business of the shipping mercliants of Manhat- 
tan. This continued policy of legalized theft and brutality 
necessarily corrupted the men of the sea, and fitted them for 
any undertaking of treachery and daring. It is difiicult in- 
culcating theft and honesty in the same lesson. During the 
continuance of the war between France and England, many 
privateers had also been fitted out from England and New 
York, to prey upon the French merchantmen, which greatly 
encourao;ed the licentious tendencies of the sailors. It is 



CAPTAIN KIDD, THE NEW YORK PIEATE. 47 

said that many of these, failing to seize the legitimate objects 
of their pursuit, to prevent failure to the expedition, fell 
upon friendly vessels, which they plundered and sunk, return- 
ing in triumph with their booty. So difficult is it for adven- 
turous men, long trained in these schools of vice, and feasted 
with ill-gotten gain, to return to the walks of common indus- 
try, that at the close of the war the seas literally swarmed 
with armed pirates. Many merchants suspended business in 
consequence of these incessant perils ; and it is even hinted 
that not a few of them, as well as higher functionaries, in- 
cluding Governor Fletcher himself, became abettors and 
partners in these piratical enterprises. The American seas, 
with a thinly populated coast of two thousand miles, indented 
with numerous harbors, rivers, and inroads, and with a poorly 
organized government, furnished perhaps the safest retreat 
for these wandering corsairs. Their merchandise was largely 
disposed of through the Spanish merchants, who had been 
so deeply demoralized by their Central American plunders 
that they cared little whence they received their goods, pro- 
vided they yielded a satisfactory profit. It is probable that 
Xew York merchants, also, were not guiltless. Before the 
conclusion of the war, these depredations became so alarm- 
ing that many New York merchants l)esought the English 
ministry to institute measures to suppress pir^cv. Governor 
Fletcher, who had been accused on every siae ot comDiicity 
with these malefactors, was removed, and Lord Beiiamont 
appointed in his stead, with instruction to extirpate piracy 
from the American seas. As every English vessel was at 
that time engaged in the war with France, Beiiamont formed 
a stock-company, in which the King, Chancellor Somers, the 
Earl of Romney, the Duke of Shrewsbury, the Earl of Ox- 
ford, Beiiamont, and Robert Livingston, became sharehold- 
ers. A written agreement was made, consisting of several 
articles, which recited, in substance, that Beiiamont should 
furnish £5,000, this sum being four-fifths of the outlay in 
the undertaking, and that the remaining fifth should be 



48 NEW TCiEK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS. 

supplied by Livingston, and the captain of the expedition. 
Livingston, at the opening of the negotiations, had introduced 
Captain William Kidd (sometimes called Robert Kidd), with 
whom he had just crossed tlie Atlantic, as a man well qualified 
for such an undertaking. Kidd Avas a Scotchman by birth, 
had followed the sea from his youth, had been captain of a 
privateer in the West Indies, and was at that time captain of 
a packet plying between New York and London. He was in 
the prime of life, and had several years previousl}^ married 
a respectable lady in New York, with whom he had since 
lived, in his own house, in Liberty Street, where he was re- 
garded a wealthy and lionorable seaman. It is said that the 
first rich carpet on Manhattan was in Kidd's parlor, though 
he is not believed to have been greatly dishonest until the 
last three years of his life. As he was an experienced and 
resolute commander, with extensive knowledge of the lurking 
places of the pirates, and of many of the pirates themselves, 
he was considered (forgetting the force of his old habits) the 
fittest person to take charge of the expedition. It is now 
easily discovered that two fatal mistakes were made in plan- 
ning this expedition. First, the vessel should have been a 
regular man-of-war, under the direction of the general gov- 
ernment, in which the captain had no capital, and from which 
no one expected a profit. On the other hand, though com- 
missioned by the king, and expected to promote the public 
good, it was the property of a private corporation, and ex- 
pected to bring large pecuniary returns. The prizes captured 
were to be taken into Boston Harbor, and delivered to Lord 
Bellamont. The parties agreed that if no prizes were cap- 
tured, the £5,000 advanced by Bellamont should be refunded, 
and the title of the vessel be vested thereafter in Livingston 
and Kidd. But as soon as Kidd delivered to Bellamont prize 
goods to the amount of £100,000, then the ship was to be- 
long to Livingston and Kidd. Bellamont and those he repre- 
sented were to receive four-fifths of the net proceeds, the 
remaining fifth belonging to Livingston and Kidd. The 



CAPTAIN KCDD, THE NEW YORK PIRATE, 40 

second mistake was in the contract made witli the crew. 
Kidd agreed to furnish about one hundred men, who were to 
receive one-fourth the value of all captures, but who were to 
be enlisted with the distinct stipulation, " no prize, no pay." 
"\Yhile it was certain that these terms would secure a crew, it 
was also certain that few besides the most daring and fool- 
hardy would he induced to embark. The result was that his 
crew was made up of the most suspicious class, many of 
whom had probably been pirates themselves, and hence open 
to the most violent temptations when alioat on a foreign sea. 

A commission bearing the great seal of England was is- 
sued December 11, 1696, and the following April Kidd set sail 
for Kew York in the " Adventure Galley," a fine ship with 
sixty sailors, which liad been fitted out for the expedition. Here 
he visited his wife, and cruised for some time around the 
coast, capturing a French privateer, for which he received 
the thanks of the Assembly of New York, and two hnndi-ed 
and fifty pounds as a complimentary reward for his fidelity. 
"While here he continued to recruit his force until it ex- 
ceeded one hundred and sixty men, after which he sailed for 
the East Indies and the eastern coast of Africa. Up to this 
point his fame continued unsullied, and by what process the 
change in his career was produced is not certainly known. 
He afterwards protested that, failing in the pursuit of the pi- 
rates, his crew became mutinous and forced him, contrary to 
his will, into his career of infamy. It is more probable that, 
finding himself in possession of a strong ship completely 
armed, with a large and well-selected crew obsequious to his 
wishes, the temptation to prey upon the weak instead of en- 
countering the strong overcame him, and he thus became one 
of the most intrepid and successful pirates that ever hoisted 
the black flag on the seas. Upon the commerce clustering 
along the coasts of Malabar and Madagascar, he conducted a 
career of outrage and plunder, by which in a short time he 
amassed countless treasure, and inflicted such destruction as 
to render his name a terror on the seas, and a theme for every 
4 



50 NEW YORK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS. 

future historian. Satisfied finally with his accumulations, he 
resolved to return. To avoid detection he exchanged his ves- 
sel, with a large portion of his crew, for a frigate he had cap- 
tured, and in 1C98 brought his vessel into Long Island Sound, 
and on Gardiner's Island buried a large amount of treasure 
in the presence of the proprietor of the estate, whom he laid 
under strict injunctions of secresy. He next repaired to Bos- 
ton under an assumed name, with the design, it is believed, 
of selling the frigate, after which he hoped to join his family 
and spend the remainder of life in quiet splendor. Appre- 
hended in the streets at Boston, he was arrested by order of 
Governor Bellamont, one of the chief promoters of the enter- 
prise, who had heard startling rumors concerning him, and 
had been anxiously watching for his return. He was sent to 
England for trial. It being considered difficult to substan- 
tiate the charge of piracy, he was arraigned for the murder 
of William Moore, one of his crew, whom he had unfortu- 
nately killed while at sea, by hitting him with a bucket for 
insubordination. After an unfair trial he was hanged in 
chains at Execution Dock, May 12, 1701. The rope broke 
and he ascended the scaffold the second time. Six of his ac- 
complices were executed the same day. Tradition says that 
after the capture of Kidd his crew returned with the vessel 
to Gardiner's Island, where they ascertained that two ships 
were in pursuit for their capture. In an attempt to escape 
they ran their vessel some distance up the Hudson river, 
where she was blown up and sunk, the sailors dispersing on 
the shore with such treasure as they could bear away. 

The buried treasure on Gardiner's Island was taken up by 
a commission appointed by Governor Bellamont, and con- 
sisted, besides considerable rich merchandise, of three bags of 
gold dust, two bags of coined silver, one bag of coined gold, 
two bags of golden bars, one bag of silver bars, one bag of 
silver rings, one bag of silver buttons, and one of jewels and 
precious stones, including agates and amethysts. The treasure 
was at that time valued at about two hundred thousand dol- 



CAPTAIX KIDD, THE NEW YORK PIRATE. 51 

lars, and with this Kidd doubtless thought it would not be 
difficult to secure his release, if his royal commission, which 
he still held, proved insufficient. The treasure thus obtained 
was believed to be but a fraction of his accumulations, and 
various rumors concerning buried riches have been revived 
by every succeeding generation down to our day. Acres of 
soil have been dug over by eager gold hunters. A pot con- 
taining eighteen hundred dollars in money ploughed up in a 
coi-n-field at Martha's Vineyard over twenty-five years ago, 
was believed by some to be a part of Kidd's money. Several 
families on Long Island it is said became unaccountably rich, 
and were believed to have shared in his accumulations, 
though this is uncertain. In 1S44: an excitement was occa- 
sioned by the discovery of a sunken vessel near Caldwell's 
Landing on the Hudson river, supposed to be the one sunken 
by Kidd's sailors. A stock company to pursue the search 
was hastily formed, sinking the fortunes of many though it 
brought up nothing but mud. The affairs of the company, 
after being manipulated by designing men, were wound up 
with litigation, disclosing great deception, and the false im- 
prisonment of an honest man, who had been unwarily drawn 
into the association. 

Captain Kidd was not the" only American pirate. His roy- 
al instructions named " Captains Thos. Too, Jolm Ireland, 
Thomas Wake, Captain Maze, and other subjects, natives or 
inhabitants of New York and elsewhere in America, they 
being Pirates upon the American seas," as persons to be pur- 
sued and captured. His unusual notoriety arose from the 
facts that he was fitted out ])y several members of the English 
nobility, all of whom were tried for their lives, after his dis- 
grace, but acquitted ; from the valuable treasures discovered, 
and the summary punishment with which he was overtaken. 
His career forcibly illustrates the facts that sin brings its own 
punishment, and that " the way of the transgressor is hard?'' 

His wife and daughter continued to reside, though in great 
retirement, in Xew Tork for some years after his death ; but 



52 NEW YORK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS, 

as he left no sons, it cannot be supposed that any of the ex- 
cellent families bearing: the name are his descendants. 



RIP VAN DAM. 



M 




^^^7fy?\URING the administration of the five 



■A|i 



'.^jii? .1 colonial governors, immediately suc- 
^^ ^^" •• - ^ ceeding Lord Bellamont, and reaching 
down to 1731, but little of general interest to 
posterity occurred, save their occasional mer- 
cenary usurpations, and an unsuccessful expe- 
dition fitted out at great expense against the 
French in Canada. Upon the death of Governor 
Montgomerie, which occurred July 1, 1731, the 
chief functions of government devolved upon Rip 
Van Dam, the oldest member of the council, and. 
ex officio, the second officer in the government. Van Dam was 
a o-enuine Holland Dutchman, his father having settled in 
the city during the reign of Governor Stuyvesant. He had 
acquired a considerable fortune in mercantile pursuits, and 
was at this time conducting an extensive foreign trade. He 
had long taken an active interest in public affairs, was famil- 
iar with all the machinery of the government, and as he 
sought the good of the people, being one of them, they were 
greatly pleased with his administration, and nothing exciting 
occurred during the thirteen months of his continuance in 
office. On the 1st day of August, 1732, he delivered the 
seals of government to his successor. Colonel William Cosby, 
former Governor of Minorca, who had just arrived with his 
royal commission. Cosby was despotic and avaricious, and 
had not sustained an unblemished character in his former 
administration. "While in England he had, however, opposed 
an obnoxious sugar bill, likely to seriously affect the colonists, 
which gave him a transient popularity on his arrival. The 



RIP VAN D.UI. 53 

assembly then in session granted him a revenue for six years, 
and a present of five hundred and fifty pounds for the service 
he had rendered them in parhament. Yan Dam, during his 
administration, had performed the whole- service of govern- 
ment, and had accordingly drawn from the treasury the cus- 
tomary salary, amounting to about two thousand pounds. The 
English crown, at the request of Cosby, had, however, fur- 
nished him with an order requiring Van Dam to refund half 
of the money to his superior. One of Cosby's first acts was 
to produce this order, and demand immediate payment of the 
money, but soon found that, in the plucky Dutchman, he had 
really caught a tartar. Tan Dam expressed his perfect will- 
ingness to divide the salary of two thousaiid pounds, on con- 
dition that Cosby should also divide the six thousand pounds 
he had received as perquisites, since his appointment, and 
previous to entering upon the duties of his ofiice. Cosby 
soon brought a suit against Van Dam, before the judges of the 
Supreme Court, as barons of the Exchequer, functions which 
their commissions allowed them to exercise. This was lit- 
erally taking the adjudication in his own hands, as the gov- 
ernor was ex officio Chancellor of the Exchequer, and two of 
the judges were among his most intimate friends. Van Dam's 
counsel excepted to the jurisdiction of the court in the case, 
and demanded that the case be tried in a suit at common law. 
The validity of this exception was supported by one of the 
judges, but overruled by the other two. Van Dam's cause 
was thus declared lost, and he was compelled to refund the 
money. 

But the people declared that the cause should not rest here. 
This continued contempt, with which everytliing of colonial 
origin was viewed and treated by the English crown and min- 
istry, could no longer be silently tolerated. They were already 
growing weary of rapacious, tyrannical Governors, whose sole 
object was to repair their broken-dowm fortunes from the un- 
requited industry of their subjects. The judge who had sus- 
tained the exceptions of Van Dam's counsel was hastily re- 



54 NEW YORK ^ND ITS mSTITL'TIONS. 

moved from office, and Van Dam suspended from the coun- 
cil. This arbitrary procedure, against one of their own long- 
trusted and honored citizens, aroused the indignation of the 
populace, whose loud murmurs were heard in all parts of the 
town. 




THE TRIAL AND TRIUMPH OF LIBERTY. 

P to this period, but one newspaper had 
been published in New York. That 
was The Neio York Gazette, by Wil- 
liam Bradford, started in October, 1725, under 
government patronage, by which it had been 
continued until this time. Supported by gov- 
ernment, it had, however, been a mere sycophant, 
and very naturally espoused the cause of Cosby in 
this controversy. During the progress of this trial, 
New York was startled with the issue of a new and 
independent paper, called the New York Weekly 
Journal, and published by Peter Zenger. This enterprising 
little sheet thought it entirely within its province to examine 
the affairs of government, scrutinize and advise the Governor, 
question the proceedings of the Court of Exchequer, discuss 
questions agitating the assembly, and present its own showing 
of the gi'ievances of the colonies. Week after week, its col- 
umns teemed with earnest, spicy, and witty articles, in which 
the cause of Van Dam was with marked ability maintained, 
and the policy of the Governor arraigned. Smarting under 
the scorn of the people, and wounded by the incessant dis- 
charge of these paper bullets, the Governor resolved to take 
the offensive. The columns of the Gazette had boldly stood 
in his defence ; but these were not sufficient : opposition must 
be suppressed. It was resolved to select four of the issues of 
the paper, containing the most obnoxious articles, which were 
to be burned by the common hangman, the officers of the 



THE TRIAL AND TRIUMPH OF LIBERTY, 55 

city and the populace being required to attend the ceremony. 
Scarcely anybody attended, however; which convinced the 
mortiiied Governor that he had entered this paper warfare at 
his own charges. But one thing remained, and that was to 
crush the editor. Zenger was accordingly arrested on a charge 
of libel, and as an enormous bail was exacted, which he could 
not procure, he was thrown into jail, and denied the use of 
pen, ink, or paper. Here he continued more than eight 
months, without, for a single week, suspending the issue of his 
paper, giving direction to his friends through a chink in the 
door. His paper lost none of its vitality by his confinement. 
Its ablest articles are believed to have been written by Van 
Dam's lawyers, and other deposed officials. On the 4th of 
August, 1735, Zeuger was brought out of his cell for trial. 
Every preparation, it was believed, had been made by the 
Governor and his friends to secure his conviction. There 
were but three eminent lawyere in New York at that time — 
William Smith, James Alexander, and Mr. Murray. Suiith 
and Alexander, having been employed to defend the prisoner, 
were greatly surprised by the Governor, who, for a pretended 
offence, ordered their names to be stricken from the list of at- 
torneys. It now looked as if the court party were to have 
things all their own way. But the friends of Zenger were not 
to be thus outwitted. They had silently engaged the services 
of Andrew Hamilton, of Philadelphia. Hamilton, though 
eighty years of age, had not greatly declined in mind, was a 
man of warm and generous impulses, and one of the most 
brilliant barristers of his day. A more able or dignified ad- 
vocate could scarcely have been found in the world, and his 
appearance in the crowded court-room, just as the case was 
called, almost stunned the leaders of the prosecution. The 
case was tried in the Supreme Court, with a jury of twelve of 
the citizens. The prosecution produced certain statements 
printed in Zenger's paper, and claimed that they were libelous, 
and that the jury were required to render a verdict of guilty, 
when satisfied that he had published them. Hamilton admit- 



66 



NEW YORK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS. 



ted their publication, and proposed to introduce the full evi- 
dence of their truthfulness. To this the attorney-general 
objected, claiming that the truth of a libel could not be taken 
in e\ddence, and that a libel became all the more dangerous 
because of its truthfulness. The fact of publication having 









ipp nv\ HOUSE A^n i 

CORRl-^l 



DURING HIS TllEVSONABLE 
DtNti, \MTII AlOOLU. 



been now fully admitted, and all evidence on the part of the 
defence being summarily ruled out by the court, nothing re- 
mained but for the counsel to sum up the case for their re- 
spective clients. Hamilton proceeded in a bland and eloquent 
manner to state the case, after which lie labored to impress 
upon tlie jury that they were to be judges of the law, as well 
as of tlie facts in the case, and tliat they were not to be tram- 
melled by the interpretation of the court. Hamilton's address 
was so ingenious and pertinent that we cannot forbear intro- 
ducing a few extracts from it. 

" If," said he, " a libel is understood in the large and un- 



THE TRIAL AND TEIUMPn OF LIBERTY. 



57 



limited sense urged by Mr. Attorney, there is scarce a MTitino- 
I know of that may not be called a libel, or scarce any per- 
son safe from being called to account as a libeller; for 
Moses, meek as he was, libelled Cain, and who is it that has 
not libelled the devil ; for, according to Mr. Attorney, it is no 
justification to say that one has a bad name. Echard has 




^ 



OLD CITY HALL. IN W.VLL STREET. 



libelled our good King William. Burnet h?*s libelled, among 
others. King Charles and King James, and Kapin has libelled 
them all. How must a man speak or write, or what must he 
hear, read, or sing, or when must he laugh, so as to be secure 
from l)eing taken up as a libeller. I sincerely believe that 
were some persons to go through the streets of New York 
nowadays and read a part of the Bible, if it were not 
known to be such, Mr. Attorney, with the help of his innuen- 
does, would easily turn it to be a libel. As, for instance, the 
sixteenth verse of the ninth chapter of Isaiah : ' The leaders 
of this people [innuendo, the Governor and Council of New 
York] cause them [innuendo, the people of this province] to 
err ; and they [meaning the people of this province] are de- 
stroyed' [innuendo, are deceived into the loss of liberty, which 



58 NEW YORK AND ITS mSTITUTIONS. 

is the worst kind of destruction] . Or, if some person should 
publicly repeat, in a manner not pleasing to his betters, the 
tenth and eleventh verses of the fifty-sixth chapter of the 
same book, then Mr. Attorney would have a large field to 
display his skill in the artful application of innuendoes. The 
words are : ' His watchmen are blind ; they are all ignorant ; 
yea, they are greedy dogs, which can never have enough.' But 
to make them a libel, no more is wanting than the aid of his 
skill in the right adapting of his innuendoes. As for instance, 
' His watchmen [innuendo, the Governor, Council, and Assem- 
bly] are blind ; they are ignorant [innuendo, will not see the 
dangerous designs of his excellency] ; yea, they [meaning the 
Governor and his Council] are greedy dogs, which can never 
have enough [innuendo, of riches and power.] ' " 

He then proceeded to show that these illustrations were 
perfectly in keeping with the case under trial, and urged the 
jury to decide for themselves concerning the truth or false- 
hood of Zenger's articles, after which he concluded as fol- 
lows: "You see I labor under the weight of many years, 
and am borne down by many infirmities of body ; yet, old 
and weak as I am, I should think it my duty, if required, to 
go to the utmost part of the land, where my service could be 
of any use in assisting to quench the flame of persecution 
upon information set on foot by the government to deprive 
a people of the right of remonstrating (and complaining too) 
against the arbitrary attempts of men in power — men who 
injure and oppress the people under their administration, 
provoking them to cry out and complain, and then make that 
very complaint the foundation for new oppressions and per- 
secutions. I ^vish I could say there were no instances of this 
kind. But to conclude, the question before the Com*t and 
you, gentlemen of the jury, is not a small or private concern; 
it is not the cause of a poor printer, nor of New York alone, 
which you are now trying. No ! it may, in its consequences, 
affect every freeman that lives under the British Govern- 
ment upon the main of America. It is the best of causes ; 



THE TEIAL AND TRIUMPH OF LIBERTY. 5l> 

it is the cause of liberty ; and I make no doubt but your 
■upright conduct this day will not only entitle you to the love 
and esteem of your fellow citizens, but every man who 
prefers freedom to a life of slavery will bless and honor you 
as men who have baffled the attempts of tyranny, and, by an 
impartial and incorrupt verdict, have laid a noble foundation 
for securing to ourselves, our posterity, and our neighbors, 
that to which nature and the laws of our country have given 
us a right — the liberty of both exposing and opposing arbi- 
trary power, in these parts of the world, at least by speaking 
and writing the truth." 

The venerable barrister closed amid a general outburst of 
satisfaction and applause, and the attorney-general offered but 
a weak response. The jury were charged that they were 
judges of the fact, but not of the law, and that the truth of 
the libel should not enter into their deliberations. After a 
few minutes' absence, the jury returned a unanimous verdict 
of " not guilty^'' The anxiety of the assembled populace 
being thus happily dismissed, their joy burst forth in loud 
and continued cheers, which rent the air, carrying everything 
before them. Hamilton was seized by glad hands, and borne 
from the court-room on the shoulders of the people. On the 
following day a public dinner was given him by the inhabi- 
tants, and the freedom of the city was presented to him in 
a magnificent gold box, and when he set sail for Philadelphia 
it was amid the roar of cannon. The spirit of independence 
brought out so emphatically in '76 had already begun to 
work in the minds of the people, and Hamilton's earnest 
utterances fell upon their hearts like sparks in a magazine. 
Whether this triumphant defeat of the Governor affected his 
health or not, we cannot tell, but he was shortly afterwards 
reported sick, and expired on the Tth of March, 1736. This 
great and decisive battle for the liberty of the press, so ably 
contested in the face of such frightful dangers, has had its 
influence on the government and inhabitants of Manhattan 
to the present day, and we cannot tell how deeply we are 



60 NEW YORK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS. 

indebted to the burning appeals of that brilliant orator, and 
the fearless decision of that faithful jury. 



THE NEGKO PLOT OF 1741. 



n ' --^~'^^",«r^i^OPI]LAE panics rank among the most 
Mr ^yi/r^^ ^^^^^ disasters that can overtake a peo- 

! ; 'iM'iJvJ P^^' "^^^^ frenzy of wild and excited 

-; ) iU/f ] masses in a populous city, like the com- 

H '-^2» ^'^^stion of vast stores of inflammable 

p^ ^»/ aiaterial, is truly frightful. In such 

^: ^^^'^ periods neither age, nor rank, nor sex, 

■"'"^^^ ' nor condition, can be said to afford any 

])ledge of permanent security. Among others, the celebrated 
Popish Plot concocted by Titus Gates of England, and the 
no less singular Witchcraft delusion of New England, may 
be mentioned as examples. The Kew York negro plot of 
1741 may be ranked with the preceding, and deserves a pass- 
ing notice in this chapter on colonial history. The lapse of 
the one hundred and thirty years which have since intervened 
has thrown so dense a haze over the period that nothing can 
be certainly known concerning it, save what has been trans- 
mitted to us by successive historians. It is impossible for us 
to determine how many grains of truth found place in that 
storm of prejudice and passion, which resulted in the heartless 
slaughter of a multitude of ignorant and defenceless beings. 
The population of New York at that time amounted to about 
ten thousand, nearly two thousand of whom were colored 
slaves. Having grown up in ignorance and moral neglect, 
they were considerably addicted to pilfering and other vices, 
and often caused their masters considerable anxiety. The 
most stringent measures were adopted to prevent their as- 
sembling together; yet, as in all slave communities, a latent 



THE NEGRO PLOT OF 1741. 61 

fear filled the minds of the whites, which every now and 
then burst forth into a matter of public alarm. Some time 
in the winter of 1740-41, a Spanish vessel, manned in part 
with black sailors, was brought into the harbor as a prize, and 
the negroes sold at auction, having previously enjoyed their 
freedom, and not relishing their changed relations, it was but 
natural that some complaints and threats should fall from 
their lips which were not particularly lieeded at the time. 

On the 18th of March, 1741, the Governor's house in the fort 
was discovered to be on fire, and despite the efforts to save it 
the flames continued to rage until the building, the King's 
chapel, the Secretary's office, the barracks, and stables, were 
wholly consumed. The Governor, in reporting the matter to 
the Assembly, declared that a plumber had left fire in the 
gutter between the house and the chapel, and that from this 
circumstance the accident had probably occurred. Some 
days later the chimney of Captain "Warren's house, situated 
near the fort, took fire, but no damage occurred. After a few 
days a fire broke out in the storehouse of one Yan Zandt, 
and was said to have resulted from the carelessness of a 
smoker. Three days later a cow stable was discovered to be 
on fire, but this was soon extinguished ; and the same day the 
house of Mr. Thompson was found on fire, the fire having 
begun in the chamber where a negro slave slept. Coals were 
discovered the next day under Jolm Murray's stable on Broad- 
way. On the day following two more fires occurred, one in 
the house of a sergeant near the fort, and the other on the 
roof of a house near the Fly Market, both of which were ex- 
tinguished with slight damage. It now came to be believed 
that these fires were the work of incendiaries, and who the 
guilty parties were became a matter of earnest inquiry. 
Some wise head conceived that these Spanish slaves had 
undertaken to destroy the city, while others believed the 
whole colored population of the island had conspired to burn 
the city and massacre the whites. One of the Spanish ne- 
groes, living near where a fire had occurred, on being ques. 



bZ NEW YOEK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS. 

tioned, was considered a suspicious character ; the demand 
for the arrest of the Spanish negroes became general, and 
they were accordingly thrown into prison. Another fire oc- 
curring during the afternoon, while the magistrates were in 
consultation, the panic became so general that negroes of all 
ages were arrested by the wholesale and thrown into close 
confinement. Search was now instituted for strangers, but 
as none were found many families concluded to escape from 
this threatened Sodom ])efore it was consumed. The 
stampede to the suburbs and regions round about became 
general, and every available vehicle was drafted into service. 
On the eleventh of April the Assembly offered a reward of 
one hundred pounds and f nil pardon, to any one who would 
turn State's evidence and make laiown the plot and the names 
of the conspirators. This was far too tempting a bait for a 
class of terrified, ignorant negroes, who saw nothing but the 
dungeon and a frightful death before them, unless by some 
revelation they were to regain their liberty, and such wealth 
as they had never aspired to. For the investigation of the 
case the Supreme Court convened on the 21st of April, 
Judges Philipse and Horsmanden presiding. Robert "Watts 
was foreman of the grand jury. It soon became evident that 
the liberal reward offered ten days previously was destined 
to be fruitful in results. Those days and nights had been 
spent by the wretched prisoners in gloomy meditation, and 
nearly every one was ready to make disclosures. Among the 
first examined was Mary Burton, a colored servant girl inden- 
tured to John Hughson, keeper of a squalid negro tavern on 
the west side of the island. Mary testified that Caesar Yarick, 
Prince Amboyman, and Cuff Philipse* had been in the habit 
of meeting at the house of Hughson, talking about burning 
the fort, the city, and murdering the people, and that Hugh- 
Bon and his wife had promised to help them, after which 
Hughson was to be the governor and Cuff king. She stated 
that no whites had been present at these times except her 

* Slaves then bore the aiirname of their masters invariably. 



THE NEGBO PLOT OF 1741. 63 

master and mistress, and Peggy Carey, an abandoned Irish 
woman living at Hughson's. Peggy was next brought before 
the court and promised pardon on condition of general con- 
fession. She, however, denied all knowledge of any con- 
spiracy, or of the origin of any of the fires, and said that to 
accuse any one would be to slander innocent persons and 
blacken her own soul. The law at that time was that no 
slave could testify in a court of justice against a white person. 
Yet Mary Burton, a colored slave, here testified to mattei-s 
implicating Peggy Carey, a white woman, which she, Peggy, 
emphatically denied. But the city had gone mad, and Mary 
Burton, who a month previous would have been spurned from 
a court-room, had suddenly become an oracle, and on her tes- 
timony poor Peggy and the negroes named were found guilty 
and sentenced to be executed. Death now staring Peggy in 
the face, she became greatly alarmed, and begged for a second 
examination, which was readily granted. She now testified 
that she had attended a meeting of negroes held at a wretched 
house near the battery kept by John Romme, and that 
Romme had promised to carry them all to a new country 
and give them their liberty, on condition that they should 
burn the city, massacre the whites, and bring him the plun- 
der. This ridiculous twaddle, evidently fabricated for the 
occasion, was received as proof positive, and the persons 
named (except Romme, who fled for life, though his wife was 
arrested) were severally brought before her for identifica- 
tion. The work of public slaughter began on the eleventh of 
May, when Csesar and Prince were hanged, denying all knowl- 
edge of any conspiracy to the last, Hughson and his wife 
having been found guilty, were shortly after hanged, in con- 
nection with Peggy, who had been promised pardon for her 
pretended confession, every word of which she solemnly re- 
tracted with her dying breath. We will not follow the 
details of this strange investigation further. Suflice it to say 
that, finding confession or some new disclosure the only loop- 
hole through which to escape, nearly every prisoner prepared 



64 NEW YOEK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS. 

a story which availed him nothing in the end. Every attor- 
ney volunteered to aid the prosecution, and thus left the ter- 
rified slaves, without counsel or friend, to utter their incoher- 
ent and contradictory statements and die. From the 11th of 
May to the 29th of August, one hundred and fifty-four ne- 
groes were committed to prison, fourteen of whom were 
burned at the stake, eighteen hanged, seventy-one trans- 
ported, and the remainder pardoned or discharged. The loqua- 
cious Mary Burton continued the heroine of the times, depos- 
ing to all she knew at the first examination, but able to 
bring from her capacious memory new and wonderful revela- 
tions at nearly every sitting of the court. At first she de- 
clared that no white person, save Hughson, his wife, and 
Peggy, was present at the meeting of the conspirators ; but at 
length remembered that John Ury, a supposed Catholic priest 
and schoolmaster in the city, had also been implicated. He 
was at once arrested, and on the 29th of August hanged. 
The panic now spread among the whites, twenty-four of 
whom being implicated were hurled into prison, and four of 
them finally executed. Personal safety appeared now at an 
end ; everybody feared his neighbor and his friend, and the 
Eeign of Terror attending the Salem Witchcraft was scarcely 
more appalling. We cannot conceive how far this matter 
would have extended if the incomprehensible Mary Burton 
had not, inflated with former success, begun to criminate 
many persons of high social standing in the city. While the 
blacks only were hi danger, these persons had added constant 
fuel to the fire ; but finding the matter coming home, they 
concluded it was now time to close the proceedings. The 
further investigation of the case was postponed, and so the 
matter ended. That some of the fires were the work of in- 
cendiaries (perhaps colored) there appears to us but little 
doubt ; but that any general conspiracy existed is not proba- 
ble. The silly story that a white inn-keeper should conspire 
with a few negroes to massacre eight thousand of his own 
race, that he might occupy a subordinate position under an 



TRIUMPH OF THE AKGLO-SAXON. 



65 



ignorant colored king, is simply ridicnlous ; yet for this he 
and his wife were hanged. The trials and executions were a 
frightful outrage of justice and humanity, presenting a mel- 
.ancholy example of the weakness of human nature, and the 
ease with which the strongest minds are borne down in peri- 
ods of popular delusion. 



TRIUMPH OF THE ANGLO-SAXON. 



^^^S-^lfe*A^V#l -^^■^ scheme of kingcraft to make the 
""'* ' ' n authorities independent of the people, 
^ by securing a permanent revenue, was 
again and again introduced by the Colonial 
^^ "^ I f wji G^o^'Crnors, but as often resisted by the Assem- 
""^"^ mif^^™| bly. Sir George Clinton, having alienated the 
])eople by his unfortunate administration, was su- 
perseded in 1753 by Sir Danvers Osborne, who 
had received royal instruction to insist on a per- 
manent revenue. This being emphatically re- 
sisted, the dispirited Governor, who had just 
buried his wife, seeing nothing but trouble and failure in the 
future, terminated his existence by hanging himself with a 
handkerchief from the garden wall of John Murray's house 
in Broadway. He was succeeded by Lieutenant-Governor 
James Delancey, whose accession was hailed with delight. 
It M^as under his administration that Kings (now Columbia) 
College was founded, the charter being signed by Delancey, 
October 31, 1754. The same year the scheme for a public 
library was projected, and the Walton House, long the 
]>alace of the city, erected. This building, erected by Wilh'am 
Walton, a son-in-law of Delancey, was four stories high, 
built of yellow Holland l^rick, with five windows in front, 
and a tiled roof encircled with balustrades. This edifice, 
5 



66 NEW TOEK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS. 

which would attract no imusual attention now in a country 
village, was then considered the wonder of America, and had 
a wide European fame. It is still standing on Pearl street, 
and contrasts sadly with the magnificent iron-fronted busi- 
ness palace of the Harpers, now nearly opposite. The city 
was now being enlarged ; new streets were laid out and con- 
structed, and piers and ferries established. But the most 
exciting topic of this period was the war with France, which 
resulted finally in the conquest of Canada. The establish- 
ment of French and English colonies on this continent re- 
sulted in incessant friction between these rival powers, and 
led ultimately to a gigantic struggle between the two most 
warlike nations of the world. The English, having planted 
themselves on the Eastern seaboard, advanced westward, 
claiming all between the Atlantic and the Pacific oceans, 
while the French, possessing Canada in tlie north, and the 
mouth of the Mississippi in the south, claimed all lying be- 
tween. These incessantly interfering claims for rich terri- 
tory, which neither owned, led to numerous bloody wars, 
extending in their influence from the St. Lawrence to the 
Ganges, for the possession of a country which, twenty years 
after the cessation of these struggles, passed fi-om under the 
control of both. The peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, in 1748, 
closed the third colonial war, which had been prosecuted with 
great vigor, and which had resulted in the capture of Louis- 
burg by the English arms. By the treaty, however, this 
captm-ed territory was restored to France, leaving things 
again in statu quo, and ready for new hostilities. In 1749, 
George II. chartered the Ohio Company, granting six hun- 
dred thousand acres of land, in the vicinity of the Ohio river, 
to certain persons of Westminster, London, and Virginia, 
thus paving the way for new national troubles. It was 
in 1753, to avoid an open rupture which was rapidly approach- 
ing, that a young man of Virginia, destined to be heard from 
(George Washington), volunteered to carry a letter of ineffec- 
tual remonstrance, several hundred miles through a dangerous 



TKIUMPH OF THE ANGLO-SAXON. 67 

country, to the French commander. In 1755 three expedi- 
tions were fitted out against Canada — one under General 
Braddock, to dislodge the French from Fort Duquesne ; one 
under General Shirley, 
for the reduction of 
Niagara ; and one un- 
der William Johnson, a 
member of the Council 
of New York, against 
Crown Point. All three 
signally failed, though 
Johnson, gaining a 
slight advantage over 
the French, wounding 
and capturing their com- 
mander, magnified it in- 
to a victory, for wliich 
he was rewarded by 
the English Govern 
ment with £5,000 and 

WASHINGTON AT THE AGE OP FORTY. 

the title or baronet. 

The preparations of 1756 were more extensive than in 
the preceding year, the Governors of Connecticut, New 
York, Pennsylvania, and Maryland uniting in the campaigns, 
and pledging nineteen thousand American troops. This 
year closed also with the success of the French arms. Prep- 
arations for war were renewed in 1757, on a greatly 
enlarged scale. Four thousand troops were pledged from 
New England alone, and a large English fleet came over to 
take part in the struggle. Yet this year ended again in 
disaster, with a loss to the English of Fort Henry and three 
tliousand captured troops. The affairs of the English colo- 
nists had now become very alarming, filling New York and the 
whole country with intense anxiety. The English colonists 
outnumbered the French by nearly twenty to one; yet, as 
they were divided in counsel, their expeditions had either 




68 



NEW YORK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS. 



been overtaken with disaster, or beaten by the French, who, 
united under a single military Governor, had so wielded 
their forces, and attracted to their ranks the Indians, as to 
have spread general disaster along the whole frontier. 

It was in this critical exigency that William Pitt, Earl of 
Chatham, was called to the helm of State, and so rapid were 
his movements, and comprehensive his plans, that the three 
years of disaster were followed by three of brilliant victory, 
culminating in the reduction of Louisburg, Frontenac, Crown 
Point, Ticonderoga, Niagara, and Quebec, thus obliterating 
forever, after a doubtful struggle of one hundred and fifty- 
six years, the French dominion from the country. The 
triumphant conclusion of this long and anxious struggle was 
the occasion of great and universal rejoicing in New York. 
The merchants had long looked for the enlargement of their 
commerce, and the citizens for the expansion of the city. 



TEOUBLOUS TIMES APPROACHING. 




HE year 1760, which so honorably 
closed the war, was also marked by 
k'j. the death of Lieutenant Governor 
2i ^M"* Delancey, who was succeeded by Cad- 
wallader D. Golden, a zealous royalist, who 
continued in power five years. It was 
during this term that the noted Stamp 
Act was passed, which rendered his ad- 
ministration a very stormy and unpleasant 
one. The news of the passage of this Act was followed in 
New York by the issue of a new paper called the " Constitu- 
tional Coui-ant," which first appeared in September, 1765, by 
the placarding of the streets with " The Folly of England, 
and the Ruin of America ; " by the organization of the 



TROUBLOUS TIMES APPROACHING. 



69 



" Sons of Liberty," and the appointment of a " Committee of 
Correspondence," to secure unanimity of action among all 
the merchants of the country in resisting the aggressions of 
Eny-laud. 




While there existed in the nature of the case many reasons 
why these colonies should eventually rise to independency, 
it is also certain that proper treatment on the part of the 
mother country would have long delayed such an event. 
The colonists had no desire to sever their connection with the 
home government ; indeed, they long clung to its usages and 
authority. In the bloody campaigns against the French they 
had sacrificed the lives of thirty thousand of their sons, and 
burdened themselves with a debt of thirteen million pounds, 
sterling. An honorable acknowledgment of their undoubted 
interests and rights would have permanently cemented them 
to the English crown : but these were persistently denied. 
The colonists were regarded as greatly inferior to the people 
of England. Pitt, the friend of America, once said in Par- 
liament, " There is not a company of foot that has served in 



70 NEW TOEK A]SrD ITS INSTITUTIONS. 

America out of which yon may not pick a man of sufficient 
knowledge and experience to make a governor of a colony 
there." This underrating of the American intellect led to the 
appointment of weak and tyrannical Governors, which yielded 
at length its legitimate fruit. The colonists resisted taxation 
because they were not represented in the English Parliament ; 
but the matter of taxation was not so grievous as the whole- 
Bale suppression of manufacture. America abounded with 
iron ; but no axe, hammer, saw, or other tool, could be manu- 
factured here without violating the crown law. Its rivers 
and marshes teemed with beaver, but no hatter was allowed to 
employ over two apprentices, and no hat of American manu- 
facture could be carried for sale from one colony to another. 
No wool could be manufactured save for private use, and the 
raw material could not be transported from one colony to 
another. Everything must be sent to England for manu- 
facture, and return laden with heavy duties. The colonists 
were prohibited from opening or conducting a commerce 
with any but the English nation, and every article of export 
must be sent in an English ship. 

The repeal of the Stamp Act was followed by the duty on 
tea, glass, etc., — legislation equally obnoxious to the colonies. 
The British naval officers were petty lords of the American 
seas. They compelled every colonial vessel to lower its sails 
as it passed, fired into them for the slightest provocation, 
boarded them at pleasm-e, and rudely impressed into tlieir 
service sailors who were never allowed to return to their 
families. These things could but yield a bloody harvest. 
The failure of the Governors to secure a permanent revenue 
was followed by the quartering of troops in Xew York, which 
the populace felt was another scheme for the destruction of 
their liberties. The citizens of New York were first to resist 
these aggressions. It was here that the Sons of Liberty first 
organized, and raised the first liberty pole. The Manhattan 
merchants were first to cease the importation of English 
goods — a contract grossly violated by other merchants in 



TROUBLOUS TIMES APPROACHING. 71 

America, but rigorously adhered to in New York, to the 
ruin of many strong houses. Here the first blood was shed 
in behalf of liberty. It occurred in a conflict between the 
citizens and the English soldiers, January 20, 1770 (over 
five years before the battle of Lexington), on a little hill near 
the present John street. It was in relation to the liberty 
pole, and long known as the battle of Golden Hill. New 
York was the scene of the greatest suffering during the 
Kevolution. Early captured and partly burned, it lay seven 
years in ruins under the heel of the conqueror, who had here 
established his principal headquarters, and monopolized all 
its churches, public buildings, and many private residences. 
Here the first Federal Congress was organized in 1785, the 
federal constitution adopted in 1788, and President Wash- 
ington inaugurated in 1789. First to espouse the cause of 
independence and organize defence, though its commerce 
was wholly ruined, and its inhabitants lay starving and 
bleeding through perilous years, it uttered no murmur of 
complaint ; and since the establishment of independence its 
citizens have been second to no others in promoting the in- 
terests of their country and of humanity. 



72 NEW YORK AND ITS INSTirUTIONS, 



CHAPTER III. 

IMPORTANT INCIDENTS OF THE REVOLUTION AND 
LATER HISTORY OF MANHATTAN. 

NEW YORK GOVERNMENT AT SEA — PLOT TO ASSASSINATE WASHING- 
TON — SHOCKING BARBARITY OF ENGLISH OFFICERS — HALE AND 
ANDRE, THE TWO SPIES ARNOLD IN NEW YORK BRITISH EVAC- 
UATION THE BURR AND HAMILTON TRAGEDY OF 1804 — ROBERT 

FULTON AND THE " CLERMONT " PUBLIC IMPROVEMENTS OF 1825. 

NEW YORK GOVERNMENT AT SEA. 

ILLIAM TRYON, the last colonial 
Governor, entered New York July 
8, 1771. He occupied the house 
in the fort, wdiich had been rebuilt 
after the excitement attending the 
negro plot subsided, and w4iich was 
now again destroyed by fire. His 
family (except the servant girl, who ^vas burned alive) barely 
escaped wnth life, a daughter leaping from a window of the 
second story. As revolution w'as brewing, business was so 
generally prostrated that no public improvements were made 
during his administration, except the founding of the Kew 
Y'ork Hospital. Tryon having returned to England, the gov 
ernment again devolved upon Cadwallader D. Golden until 
his return, which occurred June 24, 1775. The next day 
Washington entered New York on his way to Cambridge to 
take command of the Provincial army. The country was 
now fully in rebellion, and Tryon found his bed filled with 
thorns. The idea of rocking his weary frame and aching 
head into repose on the billows of the bay appears now to 




PLOT TO ASSASSINATE WASHINGTON. 



73 



have been suggested, but the fact that rest for a Crown Gov- 
ernor could only be found on the other side of the Atlantic 
was not yet so manifest. He, however, continued at his post, 
and kept up a semblance of authority against the Provincial 
Congress, until the latter part of August, when he removed 
his headquarters on board the " Asia," an English man-of-war, 
from which he for some time kept up a communication with 
his friends on shore. He also caused the principal archives 
of the city to be placed on board the ship " Duchess of Gor- 
don." These were carried to England, but again returned by 
royal order in 1781. 



PLOT TO ASSASSINATE WASHINGTON. 




BOUT the 24th of June, 1776, a most 
barbarous plot was discovered among 
the tories of New 
York, including the 
Mayor and several of ; 
General Washington's 
guards The plan was, 
upon the approach of 
the British troops, to murder Washing- 
ton and all the staff officers, blow up 
the magazines, and secure the passes of the town. 
About five hundred persons were eTijraged in tlie 
conspiracy, and the Mayor acknowledged that he 
had paid one of the chief conspirators £140, by 
order of Governor Tryon. One of the soldiers belonging to 
Washington's guards being convicted was executed "in the 
Bowery, in the presence of twenty thousand spectators. 
Severity to the few was doubtless mercy to the manv. 





74 



NEW YORK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS. 



SHOCKING BARBAKITY OF ENGLISH OFFICERS. 

HE condition of the captured soldiers 
of the Continental army, and of 
many of the inhabitants of New 
York, during the Revolutionary 
period, presents one of the most 
melancholy chapters of human suf- 
fering in the history of the world. 
The several churches were con- 
verted into prisons, hospitals, mili- 
tary depots, and riding schools 
The Bridewell, in its half -finished 
condition, the new jail, sugar-houses, and various prison-ships, 
were filled with soldiers and political prisoners promiscuously 
huddled together. In winter, without fii-e or blankets, they 





OLD PROVOST, NEW YORK. 



perished with cold, and in summer they suffocated with heat. 
In the burning season every aperture in the walls was crowded 
with human heads, panting for a breath of the outside world. 



SHOCKING BAKBARITY OF ENGLISH OFFICERS. 75 

while the ghastly eye turned anxiously from the misery and 
death within, in quest of a green leaf or a friendly counte- 
nance. Sick, wounded, and healthy lay on the same floor, ren- 
dered putrid with filth, and vocal with the sounds of human 
agony. Jailers and guards exhibited a love of cruelty hor- 
rid beyond expression, and many are said to have been 
poisoned by these fiendish attendants for their watches and 
silver buckles. They were not regarded as prisoners of war, 
but as pinioned rebels, to be starved and tortured until killed 
or goaded into the royal army. While a few remonstrated 
against these shocking inhumanities, the friends of the minis- 
try cried out, " Starvation, Starvation to the Rehels ; nothing 
but starvation will biing them to their senses." 

The old sugar-house, one of the chief dens of human tor- 
ture, was constructed of gray stone, and stood in Liberty 
street, east of Nassau, and immediately adjoining the Middle 
Dutch Church, or what is now the old Is ew York Post-office. 
This sugar refinery, erected in 1689, had passed through an 
honorable career from the days of Leisler downward in its 
legitimate use, but was now, under foreign rule, destined to 
depart from the good old way ; its sweetness to be changed to 
gall and bitterness, and its cheerful business hum to the sighs 
and wails of the suffering and starving. The edifice con- 
tained five low stories which were each divided into two rooms. 
The walls were very heavy, and the windows small and deep. 
The yard was encircled with a close board-fence nine feet 
high. Within these walls were at times huddled 400 or 500 
prisoners of war, without beds, blankets, or fire in winter, 
wearing for months the filthy garments that covered them on 
the day of their capture. Hot weather came, and with it the 
typhus fever, which prevailed fearfully, filling the dead cart 
on each returning morning with wrecks of wasted humanity, 
which were rudely dumped in the trenches in the outskirts of 
the city. The meagre diet of these suffering patriots con- 
sisted of pork and sea biscuit ; the latter, having been damaged 
by salt water, were consequently very mouldy, and much worm- 



76 



NEW YORK AND ITS ENSTITUTIONS. 



eaten. We present a cut of this memorable structure, which 
stood as a monument of the several periods through which 
it had passed until 1840, when it was demolished by the 
march of modern architectural improvements. This cut and 
several others in this volume were engraved by Alexander 
Anderson, M.D,, when in his eighty-eighth year, and were ob- 
tained, with valuable information in relation to the prisons of 
the Revolution, from Charles I. Bushnell, Esq., of New York, 
who has perhaps taken a deeper interest in the study of that 
interesting period than any other writer of our times. 




THE OLD SUGAR-HOrSE IN LIBERTY STREET. 



But dreadful as were the prisons, and the old sugar- ho use 
in Liberty street, the prison-ships are of still more terrific 
memory. In 1779 the "Prince o£ Wales" and the " Good 
Hope " were used as prison-ships. The " Good Hope " being 
destroyed by fire the following year, several old hulks for- 
merly employed as men-of-war were anchored in the North 
and the East rivers, and were called hospital ships, though it 
soon became apparent that they were but wretched prisons 
for captured Americans. Among these may be mentioned 
the " Stromboli," the " Scorpion," the " Hunter," the " Fal- 




■5 aj 



SHOCKING BAKBAKITY OF ENGLISH OFFICERS. Yi 

mouth," the " Chatham," the " Kitty," the " Frederick," the 
" Glasgow," the " Woodland," the " Clyde," the " Persever- 
ance," and the " Packet." 

But none attained such appalling notoriety, as a monstrous 
crucible of human woe, as the " Jersey." This vessel was 
originally a British line-of-battle ship, built in 1736, and car- 
ried sixty guns. She had done good service in the war with 
France, and had several times served as a part of the Medi- 
terranean squadron. In the spring of 1776 she sailed for 
America as one of the fleet of Commodore Hotham, and ar- 
rived at Sandy Hook in the month of August. She was sub- 
sequently used as a stoi-eship, then emploj'ed as a hospital 
ship, and was finally, in the winter of 1779-80, fitted up for a 
prison ship, and anchored near the Wallabout in the East river, 
near what is now the Navy Yard, where she lay until the 
close of the war, when the day of reti-ibution arrived, and 
she was broken up and sunk beneath the muddy waters of 
the East river to rise no more. Dismantled of her sails and 
stripped of her rigging, with port holes closed, with no spar 
but the bowsprit, and a derrick to take in supplies, her small 
lone flag at the stern became the appropriate but unconscious 
signal of the dreadful suffering that raged within. Hundreds 
of captured prisoners were packed into this small vessel, 
where, with but one meal of coarse and filthy food^^er diem^ 
without hammocks, or physicians, or medicines, or means of 
cleanliness, they wretchedly perished. Thousands of emaci- 
ated skeletons were during these perilous years cast into the 
billows of the bay, or left half covered in the sand banks and 
trenches. The bones of the dead lay exposed along the beach, 
drying and bleaching in the sun, whitening the shore until 
washed away by the surging tides. About twelve thousand 
prisoners are believed to have died on these vessels, most of 
whom were young men, the strength and flower of their 
country. 

The spirit of Yankee adventure was not wanting, however, 
even in those floating dens of pestilence and famine. The 



78 NEW YOEK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS. 

prisoners on board the " Jersey " secretly obtained a crow-bar, 
which they artfully concealed and used on windy and stormy 
nights to break off the port gratings, when good swimmers 
would plunge into the water and make their way to the shore. 
Thus numbers escaped to their friends, to tell the sad story 
of their sufferings and reveal the still sadder fact of the num- 
bers who had died. A singularly daring and successful feat 
was undertaken in December, 1780, by some adventurous New 
England captains suffering on the " Jersey." The best boat 
of the ship had returned from New York about four in the 
afternoon, and was carelessly fastened at the gangway, with 
her oars on board. A storm prevailed, and the wind blew 
down the river, producing an immense tide. At a given sig- 
nal a party of prisoners placed themselves carelessly between 
the ship's waist and the sentinel, while the four captains en- 
tered the boat, the fastening of which was thrown off by their 
friends. The boat passed close under the bow of the ship, 
and was at a considerable distance from her before the senti- 
nel at the forecastle gave the alarm and fired at her. The 
second boat was manned with much dispatch for a chase, but 
she pursued in vain. One man from her bow fired several 
shots at the deserters, and a few guns were discharged from 
the shore ; but all to no effect. The boat passed Hell-gate in 
the evening, and arrived at Connecticut with her precious 
fi'eight the next morning. Very few deserters were captured. 
Civilians also suffered with the soldiers. On one of the 
coldest nights of the century a party of British troops crossed 
the Hudson river on the ice and proceeded to Newark. After 
capturing the little garrison they burned the academy and 
rifled many of the dwellings. They then entered the house 
of Justice Hedden, and carried him from his bed a prisoner, 
with no clothing to screen him from the dreadful blast save 
his shirt and stockings, wounding his wife in her head and 
breast, who remonstrated against this inhuman procedure. 
Fortunately, a few militia pursued them and rescued the Jus- 



SHOCKLXG BAKBAKITY OF ENGLISH OFFICERS. TO 

tice, who was dreadfully frozen, and must have perished long 
before reaching New York. 

When the traitor Arnold entered New York, he speedily 
procured the arrest of more than fifty of the warmest friends 
of independence, who were hurled into dungeons and other 
places of confinement, where they long continued. The poor 
prisoners were kept in profound ignorance of the progress of 
the war, and were led to believe that their cause was hope- 
lessly lost. Imagine the feelings of one of these sufferers, in 
the old sugar-house in Liberty street, as he one day stood 
leaning in bitterness of soul against the high fence which 
surrounded it, when a citizen, passing near by, without halt- 
ing or turning his head, said, in a low tone, " General Bur- 
goyne is taJcen, with his whole army. It is the truth ; you 
way depend upon itP His sinking hopes revived. He hob- 
bled back into the gloomy den, to whisper in palsied ears the 
cheering truth, and raise, even in those death-glazed eyes, the 
thrice welcome vision » of a country saved. That friendly 
informant would have suffered severely if discovered ; but 
his contribution to these wasting patriots was more valuable 
than the gold of Ophir or the affection of woman. But the 
plant of liberty does not die of hunger, or thirst, or naked- 
ness, or reproach, or contumely. Nay, these but accelerate 
its immortal development ; and, amid the sufferings of the 
prisons, the privations of the camps, the wails and sobbings 
of widows and orphans, it continued its sublime expansion, 
until, at length, bursting through every opposition, it spread 
its benign shadow o'er all the land. 

In the midst of these appalling sufferings, the British offi- 
cers of New York amused themselves by planning a theatre, 
consenting themselves to become the comedians — a practice 
which they continued, in the edifice in John street, for sev- 
eral years, the tory population attending and applauding their 
entertainments. 




80 NEW YORK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS. 



HALE JlSB ANDRE, THE TWO SPIES. 

ORTiTUDE under the smart of un- 
merited sufferings is one of the i-arest 
traits of humanity. 

War is not only characterized by 
general suifering and disaster, involv- 
ing nearly every family of the country, 
but by personal adventures and sacri- 
fices, wliich not unfrequently leave a 
sting to rankle. in the minds of successive generations. There 
is a moral sublimity in one's voluntarily casting himself 
between his country and its fiercest enemies, uncovering his 
own brave head to receive the blow, that by his sacrifice 
kindred and posterity may glide unscathed and peacefully 
down the stream of time ; but this sublimity is greatly inten- 
sified when young men of brilliant abilities, stainless reputa- 
tion, and of undoubted worth to society nobly assume responsi- 
bilities attended with extraordinary perils, and likely soon to 
culminate in saddest failure and ruin. The career of Nathan 
Hale and of John Andre, two of the most brilliant and virtu- 
ous young officers representing the opposing forces of that 
stormy period, presents one of the most striking examples of 
this kind in the annals of time. Hale was born in Coventry, 
Conn., June 6, 1755 ; graduated with high honor, at Yale 
College, at the age of eighteen years, and soon became a suc- 
cessful teacher. His parents designed him for the ministry ; 
but the crash of arms at Lexington so aroused his patriotic 
impulses that he immediately wrote to his father, stating 
" that a sense of duty urged him to sacrifice everything for 
his country." He soon after entered the army as a lieuten- 
ant, and was, a few months later, promoted to the captaincy. 
^Yhile stationed with the troops near Boston, he was noted as 
a vigilant officer; and, in the early part of September, 1776, 
when in xsew York, he, with an associate, planned and cap- 



HALE AND ANDKE, THE TWO SPIES. 




tured a British sloop laden with provisions, taking her at 
midnight from mider the guns of a frigate. 

Just before the capture of New York, Washington became 
exceedingly anxious to ascertain the plans of the enemy, who 
were encamped in force on 



Long Island. A council of 
war was held, and an ap- 
peal made for a discreet 
officer to enter the enemy's 
lines and gather informa- 
tion. Captain Hale, who 
was only twenty-one years 
of age, came nobly forward 
and offered to undertake 
tlie perilous mission. He 
entered the British lines 
in disguise, examined the 
island, made drawings and 
memoranda of everything most important, ascertained their 
plans, conducting his enterprise with great capacity and 
address, but was accidentally apprehended in making his 
escape. But while Hale was making discoveries at Long Island, 
a portion of the British army had crossed the East river under 
cover of the fire of their fleet, and had captured New York, 
General Howe taking up temporary headquarters in the 
vicinity of Fiftieth street. Llale was brought to the head- 
quarters of Howe, who delivered him to the notorious Cun- 
ningham, oi-dering him to be executed on the following 
morning, unless he should renounce the colonial cause. He 
was unmercifully hanged upon an apple-tree, and his remains 
cast into an unknown grave. 

Andre was born in London, in 1751 ; was educated at 
Geneva, after which he entered a counting-house. Disap- 
pointed in love, he abandoned business and entered the army, 
where he rose by the intrinsic worth of his character to be 
.captain, major, and finally adjutant-general, under Sir Henry 



82 NEW YORK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS. 

Clinton, chief commander at New York. As he had read 
extensively, had a \dgorous memory, brilliant powers of con- 
versation, understood several languages, wrote poetry, and 
was a fine singer, he became naturally a universal favorite in 
all select circles. His enthusiasm for the loyal cause was 
unbounded; and Sir Henry Clinton appears to have com- 
mitted to his pen the treasonable correspondence which was 
conducted for more than eighteen months with Benedict 
Arnold. Their letters were written in disguised hands, Ar- 
nold using the signature of " Gustavus," and Andre that of 
"John Anderson." Some of these letters are believed to have 
been written in the Kipp Bay House, a cut of which is in- 
serted on page 56. This edifice, erected of Holland brick, 
in 1641, was considered a mansion of such respectable grand- 
eur during the revolution, that in the forced absence of the 
proprietor, who was a whig, it was made the headquarters 
and place of banqueting and pleasant resort, of British ofii- 
cers of distinction. Here Sir William Howe, Sir Henry 
Clinton, Lord Percy, General Knyphausen, Major Andre, 
and their satellites beguiled many a weary hour. It was at 
this house that Major Andre partook of his last public dimier 
in New York, and with his characteristic conviviality sung at 
the repast a song beginning : 

"Why, soldiers, why, 
Should we be melancholy boys, 
Wlwse business His to die? " etc. 

In ten short days from that time this gay and accomplished 
officer was a prisoner, and found it his sad " business to die " 
as a malefactor. 

But we have somewhat anticipated our story. Andr^ was 
selected to ascend the Hudson, have an interview with Ar- 
nold, and complete the arrangement for the capture of West 
Pohit. From the " Vulture," an English man-of-war, he landed 
near Haverstraw, at dead of night, held the expected confer- 
ence with the American traitor, lay concealed for some time 



HALE AND ANDEE, THE TWO SPIES. 83 

witliin the American lines, but was captured at Tarrytown, 
in an effort to return to New York. After an impartial trial 
he was, at the age of twenty-nine years, executed as a spy, at 
Tappan, October 2, 1780. 

While there are some points of similarity in the career and 
fate of these accomplished young men, there are also re- 
markable contrasts in the treatment administered to them by 
the authorities into whose hands they fell. Neither of them 
contested the principles upon which they were sentenced, 
but manfully recognized the importance of these rules of 
war, though Andre begged that the application of the rule 
might be changed, and he shot instead of hanged — a matter 
to which Hale was profoundly indifferent. 

Hale was approached by the authorities with advantageous 
offers, on condition that he would join the enemy, which he 
resolutely spurned, at the loss of his life ; but Andre was 
subjected to no such temptations. Hale, captured in the 
afternoon, was executed at day-break on the following morn- 
ing ; while Andre was granted ten days to prepare for his 
approaching doom. Hale, during the short period of his 
confinement, was made in every conceivable manner to feel 
that he was considered a traitor and a rebel. He saw 
no friendly countenance, and heard no word of respect or 
compassion. The hasty letters he wrote to his father and 
sister were destroyed, and he was even denied the use of a 
Bible and the counsels of a clergyman at his execution. On 
the other hand, the generous Americans, half -forgetting the 
treachery of Andre, lavished to the last their attentions and 
affections upon his accomplished person, Washington shed- 
ding tears when he signed his death-warrant. Andre, as he 
was going to die, with great presence of mind and the most 
engaging air, bowed to all around him, thanking them for 
the kindness and respect with which he had been treated, 
saying, " Gentlemen, you will bear witness that I die with 
the firmness becoming a soldier." Hale had received no 
respect, and no kindly attentions ; hence, he had none to 



84 



NEW YOKK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS. 



return. He was a mere youth, but with a manly courage, 
mighty in death on the scaffold, exclaimed, " I am so satis- 
fied with the cause in which I have engaged, that my only 
regret is that I have not more lives than one to offer in its 
service." 

Wliile we can l)ut respect the attainments and admire the 
bearing of Andre, we are no less favorably impressed with 
the manly accomplishments and fortitude of Hale, several 
years ]iis junior, who passed through one of the most trying 
ordeals in the history of the world, and whose name has not 
had its deserved prominence in American history. 




ARXOLD IN NEW YORK. 

yfiMOXG all the blackened names that 
k^yfli\ darken the pages of New York his- 
./^^"^ tory, no one has stood forth so con- 
spicuously, or been so emphatically 
g a hissing and a by-word among all 
^^ classes, as that of Benedict Arnold. 
He was born of respectable parentage at Norwich, Conn., 
January 3, 17-iO, where he received the usual common- 
school education of his day, being designed by his friends for 
a mercantile career. His early associations and habits gave 
evidence of an unprincipled, adventurous, and changeable 




ARNOLD IN NEW YORK, 



85 



nature, which unfortunately grew worse and worse tlirough 
all his career. His greatest talent was doubtless in military 
pui-suits, where he always appeared as an intrepid, dashing, 
and successful chieftain. Among the first at the outbreak 
of the Revolution to abandon business and mount the sad- 
dle, he was during the early northern campaigns more con- 
spicuous than any other, exhibiting everywhere a genius and 
fortitude challenging the respect of friend and foe. But his 
treacherous and selfish nature, his vanity and extravagance, 
were everywhere as conspicuous as his military successes, re- 
sulting in repeated perplexities and difiiculties, rendering 
him forever unpopular and an object of public suspicion. 
Overlooked and slighted 



by Congress in its army 
appointments, convicted of 
peculation and reprimand- 
ed by his superiors, and 
strangely ambitions for lux- 
ury and display, he satani- 
cally resolved to betray his 
country's cause, and sell his 
influence for a bag of gold. 
He was probably long re- 
strained from this traitor- 
ous undertaking by the 
counsels of Washington, 
who highly appreciated his abilities, though he disapproved 
of his unscrupulous conduct. Eecovering from a wound re- 
ceived in battle, he was appointed to the command of Phila- 
delphia. Here he married for his second wife Miss Margaret 
Shippen, whose father was subsequently chief justice of Penn- 
sylvania, and was at that time considered one of the chief 
men of the State, though strongly attached to the tory interest. 
His wife was one of the chief belles of the city, and probably 
added some stimulus to his extravagant temper. She had 
been an intimate friend of Major Andre, with whom she con- 




8G NEW YOEK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS. 

tinned to correspond after lier marriage, and which probably 
paved the way for the nndying dishonor of her husband. 
Having resolved on great treachery, Arnold sought and 
obtained from Washington command of West Point, one 
of the principal bulwarks of the country and the key to the 
interior. His iniquitous correspondence with British officials 
is believed to have been continued for eighteen months be- 
fore its detection. In this he proj)osed to so dispose of the 
troops at West Point that the place, with all its forces and 
munitions, would fall an easy conquest ; for which he was to 
be rewarded with a General's commission in the royal army, 
and a purse of £10,000 of English gold. Deserting his country 
which had raised him from obscurity, robbing her of his in- 
fluence and service, seeking with artful strategy to enslave 
her patriots and desolate her plains, in the period of her 
deepest poverty and distress, he committed one of those unpar- 
donable crimes which the world has never been able to over- 
look. Twice he narrowly escaped capture ; a singular pro- 
vidence, however, ordered that his crime should not be wiped 
out with his blood, but that, through the twenty-one years of 
his ripened manhood, his dejected crest should be blazoned 
with the marks of his infamy, and that he should live and 
die a despised exile from the land of his nativity. He would 
have been captured, and humanly speaking should have been, 
by Washington at West Point, had it not been for the unac- 
countable stupidity of Colonel Jameson, commander at North 
Castle, to whom Andre was given after his arrest. The 
papers found in his stockings, containing plans of all the 
West Point fortifications, a description of the works, the 
number of troops, the disposition of the corps, etc., etc., were 
all in Arnold's handwriting. These Jameson dispatched to 
Washington, but insisted on sending a letter stating these 
facts to Arnold, which apprised him of his danger and led to 
his hasty flight. The letter from Jameson was received by 
Arnold while at breakfast with his wife and several oflicers. 
He was greatly startled, but quieted the officers by stating 



ARNOLD IN NEW YORK. 87 

that his presence was needed at the fortifications, and that he 
would soon return. His wife, with her infant child, had come 
from Philadelphia to join him at his post of duty but ten 
days previously. Summoning her to their private room, he 
informed her of his crime, and the necessity of his immediate 
flight. Overwhelmed with the announcement, she screamed, 
swooned, and fell upon the floor, and in this perilous condition 
he left her and fled for his life. Gaining tlie " Yulture," 
still anchored in the river, he proceeded to New York. 
Here he received his royal commission, and at length the 
stipulated price for his treason ; but his crime was too naked 
and wanton to secure respect even from those for whom he 
had sacrificed his honor. He soon caused multitudes of 
patriots to be arrested and cast into dungeons, but in his 
precipitate flight from West Point he had left all his papers, 
and hence could produce no evidence against them. Covered 
with scorn, he lived in partial concealment, sometimes in the 
Yerplanck House in Wall street, and again on Broadway, 
near the Kennedy House, Clinton's residence and headquar- 
ters. To save him from utter contempt when he rode out, 
English officers attended him, though it is said many of them 
thought it an ungracious task to appear at his side in the streets. 
While here, a plot was laid in the American camp for his 
capture, which nearly succeeded. The American troops 
were so stung with the disgrace he had brought upon their 
arms, that many were ready to enlist in any feasible enter- 
prise to bring him to speedy retribution. Sergeant-major 
Champe, of the American dragoons in New Jersey, was the 
daring spirit of the band, who, by a connivance with his com- 
manding officer, deserted the ranks and galloped toward the 
Hudson, but so hotly was he pursued by several troopers not 
in the secret that he plunged into the river and swam across 
to New York. His perilous adventure gave the strongest 
evidence that his desertion to the British was genuine; hence, 
he was warmly received by all. He thus gained free access 
to Arnold's residence in Broadway, and adroitly matured a 



03 NEW TOEK AKD ITS mSTITUTIONS. 

plau for his capture. His comrades were to cross from New 
Jersey in a boat opposite the house, under cover of darkness, 
pass up through an adjoining alley, enter the garden and gain 
access to the rear of the dwelling, seize and gag the victim, 
carrying him by the same route to the boat. Champe had 
loosened the pickets of the fence, the hour was appointed for 
the midertaking ; but unfortunately, on the day previous to 
its execution, Champe's regiment was ordered to embark fen* 
Chesapeake, and Arnold removed his headquarters to another 
dwelling. Champe's comrades were punctual at the rendez- 
vous, where they waited several hours for his appearance ; 
and then returned in disappointment to camp. Not long 
after Champe made his escape from the southern army, and 
returned to his friends, to clear up the strange mystery that 
had hung over his conduct. Arnold left New York to com- 
mand an expedition against Virginia, and afterwards led one 
against New London, Comi. ; and is said to have watched 
with fiendish cruelty the burning of the town, almost in sight 
of the place of his birth. At the close of the war, he went to 
England, where he died unlamented, in 1801. It is said that 
he once expressed the sorrow that he was the only man liv- 
ing who could not find refuge in the American Republic. 



^,cy^<^l-^ri^. .y^^^ 



BRITISH EVACUATION. 



89 



BRITISH EVACUATION. 




CORNWALLIS. 



HE surrender of Lord Cornwallis at 
Yorktown, on the 17th of October, 
1781, with seven thousand English 
troops, was really the signal for terniin 
ating the weary struggle. Lord North, 
the English Premier, was compelled to 
resign the following March, and Rock- 
ingham, the leader of the peace party 
in Parliament, was appointed to fill his place. Negotiation 
followed for many months, ending in the complete emanci- 
pation of the colonies from British rule. On the 25th of 
November, 1783, at 12 m., the British flag was taken from 
the staff on the fort, the troops embarked, and the long ex- 
patriated citizens were allowed to return to the full possession 
of their city and property. Washington tarried until the 
4th of December, when he took his farewell of his officers 
amid such expressions of profound sorrow as have rarely 
been exhibited in army circles. The city, seven years a 
prison and military depot, had greatly sunken into decay ; 
commerce was wholly ruined, and general desolation brooded 
on every side. Though escaped from the boiling caldron of 
war, it was long disquieted with civil feuds growing out of 
the late struggle. Its population at the close of the war 
amounted to about twenty-three thousand, and though nu- 
merous improvements were contemplated, so deep and uni- 
versal was the poverty of the population that little of public 
enterprise was undertaken for more than fifteen years. 




90 NEW YORK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS. 

THE BURR AND HAMILTON TRAGEDY OF 1804. 

EEVOLUTIONARY period opens a 
wide theatre for the development of 
the rarest genius, and for the grandest 
display of all the richest qualities of 
the human soul. And while it is true 
that great benevolence, patriotism, or 
self-sacrifice at such times glows with 
a richer coloring, it is no less true that 
selfishness, peculation, and treason, are 
branded with a deeper infamy. The stirring events of the 
American Kevolution brought to the surface a multitude of 
able and brilliant men, some of whom by directness and 
sterling integrity towered higher and higher through all their 
history, while others equally gifted, choosing the tortuous 
paths of stratagem and guile, sunk into national contempt, 
and blackened their names with undying disgrace. While few 
names in American history, on their bare announcement, 
suggest more than those of Aaron Burr and Alexander Ham- 
ilton, it would be difiicult to find two young men whose early 
circumstances presented more numerous points of similarity, 
or upon whom nature and providence had more profusely 
lavished their gifts and opportunities. Born in the middle 
of the eighteenth century, with but eleven months' difference 
in their ages, educated in the first circles of the times, fortu- 
nate in their matrimonial alliances; both small of stature, 
beautiful in person, courtly in carriage, rarely gifted in mind, 
distinguished for gallantry on the field of battle, and for suc- 
cess at the bar, they certainly had opportunities wide as the 
world for the realization of the highest worldly satisfaction, 
and for immortal renown. 

Hamilton was born in the West Indies, where he lost his 
mother in childhood; his father early failed in business, con- 
tinuing through life in poverty and dependence, leaving his 
son under the charge of relatives. The Revolution found 




THE BUKR AND HAMILTON TRAGKOV OF 18U4, Ul 

young Hamilton a student in King's (Columbia) College, 
where he displayed such extraordinary qualities of mind 
that he soon rose from obscurity to shine through life as a 
star of the first magnitude in the politi- 
cal and intellectual world. Having 
adopted New York as the city of his 
residence, he espoused the colonial 
cause unfalteringly, and early entered 
the army. He took part in the battle 
of Long Island, retired across the Har- 
lem river as a captain • of artillery un- 
der Washington when New York w^as 
abandoned to the enemy, shared the 
dispiriting retreat through the Jerseys, 

bore honorable part in the battles of Trenton and Princeton, 
and assisted at the capture of Lord Cornwallis at Yorktown. 
He early became aide-de-camp to General Washington, whose 
confidence he always retained, conducting much of the Gen- 
eral's correspondence during the war, receiving from him the 
appointment of first Secretary of the Treasury of the United 
States, and assisting him in the preparation of his memorable 
Farewell Address. In all the early conventions in which the 
principles and forms of our government were settled, and in 
the pamphlet and periodical literature of his times, his in- 
fluence was scarcely second to that of any other in the coun- 
try. The practice of duelling, rife in his times, and by which 
he lost his eldest son, a youth of twenty years, two years pre- 
vious to his own sad death, he utterly condenmed ; yet, yield- 
ing at last to the persistent demands of a false honor, he was 
mortally wounded at Weehauken by a ball from Burr's pis- 
tol, July 11th, 1804, and expired on the following day, in his 
forty -eighth year. 

The rise of Burr was not so completely from obscurity. 
His father and grandfather having been pre-eminently dis- 
tinguished for both moral and intellectual greatness, he 
inherited the prestige of a great and honored name. Grad- 



92 



E\V YORK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS. 



iiating with honor at Princeton, in 1772, at the early age of 
sixteen, lie had two or three years for reading and observa- 
tion before the outburst of the Revolution. The times were 
fraught with great events, and the military ambition with 
which his whole soul was aglow soon burst forth in rapid 
and dashing strides for glory and renown. In those perilous 
northern campaigns under Arnold, he bore a distinguished 
part ; and, though a beardless youth, he had the honor of 
carrying General Montgomery bleeding from the field, and 




RICnMOND IIIITi nousH 



of supporting his dying head. He was for a short time 
associated with Washington as one of his aids, the connection 
being soon dissolved with mutual disgust, which never after- 
wards suffered any abatement. At the close of the war, Burr 
and Hamilton, neither of whom had spent much time in the 
study of law, on being admitted, began to practice in New 
York, where each rose with the rapidity and brilliancy of a 
rocket — entering regions which rockets could not. The old 
members of the bar being mostly legally disqualified on ac- 



THE BCER AND IIAJNIILTON TRAGEDY OF 1S04. 93 

count of their former disloyalty, these intrepid young military 
celebrities, with scarcely more than a single bound, placed 
themselves at the forefront of the profession, from which they 
were never subsequently displaced. Burr, in particular, 
from his family associations, soon became immensely popular, 
drawing numerous and wealthy clients, in whose service he 
speedily amassed a fortune. In the meantime his success in 
politics was equally brilliant. In 1TS4 he was elected to the 
State legislature, and the following year appointed Attorney- 
General of New York. In 1791 he entered the United 
States' senate, where he continued six years, when he was 
again sent to the State legislature. Here he fought a blood- 
less duel with Mr. Church. The electoral college of ISOO, 
having by some mischance cast an equal number of votes 
for Burr and Jefferson, the House of Representatives, on 
its thirty-sixth ballot, elected Jefferson President, leaving 
Burr the Vice-president of tlie United States. It was during 
this term that the fatal duel occurred between him and 
Hamilton. Burr had purchased the famous Rjchmond Hill 
mansion, where he lived with his family in much splendor. 
This building, erected previous to the Revolution, stood on a 
fine eminence, on what is now the corner of Yarick and 
Charlton streets, then far out in the country, and was sur- 
rounded with richly cultivated gardens and parks. It had 
been the headquarters of General "Washington, and at a later 
period was occupied by one of the British Generals com- 
manding New York. Hamilton owned a fine country resi- 
dence on the Kingsbridge road (near Central Park), but at 
the time of his death lived in Park Place, near Broadway. 
Burr's popularity having much waned, and seeing no pros- 
pect of being returned to the presidency, sought to be 
elected Governor of New York. In this he was also over- 
whelmingly defeated. Hamilton was virtually the head of 
the opposition ; and Burr believed his failure owing to cer- 
tain disparaging utterances made by this distinguished oppo- 
nent. He accordingly demanded a general and uncondi- 



94 



NEW YOKK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS. 



tioiial retraction, which, not being instantly complied with, 
was followed by a challenge for a duel. Burr had been 
observed by the boys of the neighborhood for some time, to 
be practising with a pistol in his park ; and while Hamilton 
in the encounter innocently discharged his piece in the air, 
the aim of Burr produced deadly effect. These facts, coming 
to the knowledge of the people, produced the belief that he 
had sought the deliberate murder of Hamilton, who had long 




HAMILTON'S RESIDENCE. 



been his victorious opponent. Burr was found several hours 
after the occurrence in his arbor, reading one of his favorite 
authors as composedly as if nothing had happened, and 
even refused to credit the statement that Hamilton had been 
injured, and was then lying in a dying condition. The re- 
mains of Hamilton w^ere interred amid the sis-lis and wails of 



ROBERT FULTON AND THE " CLERMONT." 95 

the people, in the grounds at old Trinity, where they still 
remain. Having slain the nation's favorite, the indignation 
of the populace burst forth against Burr with such intensity 
that he was glad to abandon his palace home and seek refuge 
in the Southern States. AVe cannot trace minutely his later 
career. Arrested soon after and tried for treason, he con- 
sumed all his means in making his defence successful, after 
which he sailed for Europe. Sunk in deepest poverty and 
distress, he begged a passage back to the States in 1812. 
His wife had died some years previously, his only daughter, 
Mrs. Governor Alston, of South Carolina, and her son 
being the only surviving friends to claim his affection. 
About the time of his return from Europe, Aaron Burr 
Alston, his only grandchild, was laid in a little grave. 
The mothep of this boy, a gifted woman, with unchanging 
affection for her doting father, soon after started North to 
visit and console him in his despised and wretched condition. 
But she was lost at sea, and never heard from after embarking ; 
and her sorrow-stricken husband, after long, anxious, and 
disappointed search, expired suddenly under a burden of 
woe. By a singular providence. Burr lived on and passed 
his eightieth year. Like a shrivelled and fire-scorched oak, 
he still lifted his guilty head and looked down upon the des- 
olation of his business, his popularity, his honor, his family, 
and his hopes for time and for eternity. What a sad and 
melancholy comment upon the insecurity of worldly fortune, 
and the unhappy fruit of deliberately abandoned principle ! 



96 



NEW YOKK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS. 



ROBERT FULTOX AND THE "CLERMONT." 




THE '-CLERMONT " 



OW long and anxiously the 
world waited for human ge- 
nius to control and utilize 
material nature ! How slow 
is jjliilosophical progress ! 

Though the properties of 
steam were treated of, and 
mechanical effects produced 
by its agency, more than two 
centuries previous to the beginning of tlie Christian era, 
the steam engine proper was not patented until the time of 
Watt (1768-9), and not successfully applied to the use of 
navigation until 1807. It is amusing, in these days of rapid 
travel, to think of the early ferries of New York, and the slow 
progress made on all the rivers and lakes. Until 1810, row- 
boats and pirogues were the only ferry-boats plying between 
New York and Long Island, or used anywhere else on the 
rivers. Horse power was introduced in 1814, the boat being 
constructed with a wheel in the centre, propelled by horses, 
who operated on a sort of horizontal treadmill. The first 
steam ferry-boat was the Nassau, constructed by Fulton, and 
placed on the ferry bearing his name May 8, 1814 ; but as 
steam was considered too expensive, no additional boats of 
this kind were added for more than ten years. 

Experimenting in steam navigation had been going on in 
New York under the direction of Stevens, Fitch, and 
Eobert R. Livingston, for more than twenty years previous to 
the successful attempt of Fulton. A monopoly had been 
granted to John Fitch in 1787, but in 1798 the legislature of 
New York transferred to Chancellor Livingston, who claimed 
to be the discoverer of this new power, the exclusive right <»f 
steam navigation on all the waters of the State for twenty 
years, provided that he should within the next twelve months 



PUBLIC DIPEOVEMENTS OF 1825. 97 

place a boat on the Hudson river, with a speed of not less 
than four miles per hour. This he failed to do. Several years 
later he made the acquaintance of Fulton, in France, who, 
though born in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and essentially an 
American, had hitherto gained all his notoriety in the old 
world. Fulton had studied painting under Benjamin West, 
the ncAV canal system under the Duke of Bridgewater, had 
been intimate with Watt, the inventor of the steam engine, 
had invented machines for making ropes, spinning flax, ex- 
cavating channels and aqueducts, and had spent much time in 
inventing and patenting a torpedo. Fulton has been described 
by those who knew him as tall and slender in form, graceful 
in manners, simple in all his habits, and so intelligent and 
prepossessing as to readily captivate the young and win 
golden opinions fi'om the talented and learned. Entering 
into an arrangement with Mr. Livingston, he returned to Isew 
York, planned and launched the '" Clermont," the first steam- 
boat that ever ploughed the Hudson, and thus obtained the 
monopoly on the waters of the State. The vessel was con- 
structed at Jersey City, amid the jeers of the populace, who 
derisively christened it " the Fulton Folly." Scarcely any 
one believed he would succeed; but he knew the fate of men 
wlio live in advance of their time, and coolly proceeded with 
his undertaking. On the 7th of August, 1807, he announced 
his vessel ready for the trial trip to Albany. Thousands of 
eager spectators thronged the banks of the river, to mingle 
their glee over the long-predicted failure ; but as the ma- 
chinery began its movement, and the vessel stood toward the 
centre of the river, the cry of " ske moves ! she moves ! " ran 
all along the line, and it is said that some sailors on vessels 
anchored in the river, and not acquainted with the secret, 
fell down on their knees and prayed to be delivered from 
this wheezing monster. The passage to Albany was made in 
thirty-two hours, the banks of the river being thronged much 
of the way with excited thousands, witnessing with peculiar 
pleasure this marvellous triumph of human genius. But 



98 



NEW YOEK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS. 



while Fulton won the first laurels with the " Clermont," Mr. 
John Stevens, and his son, E. L. Stevens, launched the 
Phoenix immediately after, which they ran to Philadelphia, 
gaining equal notoriety ; and as soon as the State monopoly 
was abolished they launched an improved steamboat with a 
speed of thirteen and one-half miles per hour, thus producing 
a complete revolution in the system of navigation. Fulton 
died suddenly in the plenitude of his powers, February 24th, 
1815, in the fiftieth year of his age. 




PUBLIC IMPROVEMENTS OF 1825. 

A PITAL is one of the mighty 
engines of national progress, 
and internal developments can 
only keep pace with the ac- 
cumulations of the people. 
Our city rulers now expend more on pub- 
lic Nvorks in a single year than our fathers 
did during a lifetime. Still, we must 
pause to chronicle a few of the prominent 
events that transpired in the earlier part 
of this century. Passing over the events 
of the war with England, in 1812-14, when the city wore a 
martial air, and the populace almost unanimously engaged in 
constructing the fortifications at the Narrows, on the islands 
of the bay, and elsewhere ; and the imposing reception of 
General Lafayette, in the summer of 1824, we pause to 
glance at the internal improvements of the following year. 
The year 1825 was the beginning of a new era in the devel- 
opment of the city, since which its population has more than 
quadrupled, and the volume of its commerce enlarged at least 
twenty-fold. The great event of this year was the opening 
of the Erie Canal, commenced eight years pre^^ously. The 



PUBLIC IMPROVEMENTS OF 1825. 99 

first flotilla of boats, containing Dewitt Clinton, Governor of 
the State, and many other distinguished gentlemen, left 
Buffalo October 26th, and arrived at New York on the morn- 
ing of November 4th. The triumphant starting was signaled 
by the discharge of a cannon, which was replied to by another 
and another all along the line, the report reaching New York 
in eighty minutes, and the return salute finding its way back 
to Buffalo in about the same time — the raciest telegraphing 
of that period. The construction of this great artificial 
thoroughfare, as well as its subsequent enlargement, was an 
unpopular measure with a large minority of the people, on 
account of its costliness ; but in 1866 it was ascertained that, 
besides enlarging many of the principal cities, and adding to 
the comfort and wealth of nearly all the people of the State, 
it had returned into the public treasury $23,500,000 above 
all its cost, including principal, interest, repairs, superintend- 
ence, etc., etc. 

It was in May, 1825, that tlie first gas-pipes were laid, by 
the New York Gas-light Company, which had been incorpo- 
rated in 1823. No system for lighting the streets was intro- 
duced uutil 1697, when the aldermen were charged with en- 
forcing the duty that " every seventh householder, in the dark 
time of the moon, cause a lantern and candle to be hung out 
of his window on a pole, the expense to be divided among 
the seven families." At a later period, the principal streets 
were dimly lighted with oil lamps. This first gas-pipe inno- 
vation extended on either side of Broadway, from Canal 
street to the Battery, and soon grew into public favor, so that 
in 1830 the Manhattan Gas-light Company was incorporated 
with a capital of $500,000, to supply the upper part of the 
island. A network of gas-pipes now extends over the en- 
tire island, conducting this brilliant illuminator into nearly 
every building. 

The same year were introduced the joint-stock companies, 
which were speedily followed by great commercial disasters, 
almost paralyzing the commerce of the whole country. 



100 NEW YOEK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS. 

The Merchants' Exchange, and other architectural monu- 
ments, were begun the same year. Marble was then first in- 
troduced for ordinar}^ buildings, the City Hall and the Amer- 
ican Museum being the only buildings then standing on the 
island in the construction of which this material had been 
employed. The records of that otherwise bright year were 
somewhat darkened with the introduction of the Italian opera 
and the Sunday press. 

In this connection we may also add that the !New York 
and Erie Railroad was opened to Goshen in 1841, and 
through to Dunkirk in 1851. The Long Island Railroad was 
opened in 1844, the New York and New Haven in 1S4S, the 
Harlem to Chatham Four Corners in 1852, the Flushing in 
1854, the Hudson river to Peekskill in 1849, and to Albany 
in 1851. All these have greatly enlarged the commerce and 
growth of the metropolis. 

The first telegraphic communication with New York was 
established by the Philadelphia and Washington line in 1845, 
and was the second in the country, one having been estab- 
lished the previous year between Washington and Baltimore. 




■'t(j III! 



1^ m^^^: 



i-^ ,wti 



r-au, •. ji-.'^;^! 



DESCRIFnON OF THE ISLAND. 



101 



CHAPTER IV^ 
NEW YORK AS IT IS. 




I. DESCRIPTION OF THE ISLAND. 

'EW YOKK Island is situated in the 
upper New York bay, eighteen miles 
from the Atlantic Ocean, at the 
moutli of the Hudson river, which forms its 
western boundary, is separated from Long 
Island by the East river, and from the rest 
of New York State by the Harlem river and 
Spuyten Duyvel creek. The island is thirteen 
and one-lialf miles long, two and one-half wide 
at its extreme point, contains fourteen thousand 
acres, and is by survey divided into 141,486 lots, 
tM'enty-five by one hundred feet each. Its original surface was 
diversified by broken rocky hills, marshes, and ponds of water, 
and by arable and sandy plains. The rocks, which consisted 
principally of gneiss, hornblende, slate, mica, limestone, and 
granite, have been, for the most part, too coarse and brittle 
for building purposes, but have been employed to advantage 
in grading and docking. A bold rocky i-idge, starting on 
the southern portion, extended northward, branching off into 
several spurs, which again united, forming "Washington 
Heights, the greatest elevation anywhere attained (two hun- 
dred and thirty-eight feet above tide), and ending in a 
sharp precipitous promontory at the northern extremity of 
the island. 

A body of fresh water known as " Collect Pond," nearly 
two miles in circumference, and fifty feet deep, covered the 
territory of the present Five Points, and the site of the 



102 NEW YORK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS. 

Tombs, and was connected with the Hudson by a deep outlet 
on the line of Canal street, from which the street takes its 
name. This lake was encircled with a dense forest, and was 
tiie resort of skating parties in winter, while in summer 
Stevens and Fitch experimented in steam navigation on its 
waters ten years before Fulton's vessel skimmed the Hudson. 
Deep rivulets supplied by springs and marshes cut the surface 
in many directions. Up Maiden lane flowed a deep inroad 
from the bay. In the vicinity of Peck Slip ran a low water- 
course, which in the wet season united with the Collect, thus 
cutting oif about eight hundred acres on the lower point, into 
a separate island. A deep stream flowed down Broad street, 
up which boatmen came for many years in their canoes to 
sell their oysters. The sources that supplied tliese lakes and 
streams still exist, and these waters are carried off through 
numerous immense sewers, covered deep in the earth, over 
which thousands tread daily, unconscious of their existence. 
The lower part of the island has been greatly widened by 
art; the whole territory covered by Front and Water streets 
on the east side, and by West, Greenwich, and Washington, 
on the west, including the whole site of Washington Market, 
was once swept by the billows of the bay. The chills and 
fever, with which liundreds of families are afflicted at this 
writing, result doubtless from these numerous covered but 
malarious marshes. 

Civilization introduced gardening and farming. At the sur- 
render of the Dutch dynasty the city occupied only the ex- 
treme southern portion of the island, a high wall, with ditch, 
having been thrown across it on the line of Wall street, for 
defence. All above this was for several years common 
pasture ground, but was afterwards divided into farms. The 
Governor's garden lay along what is now Wliitehall street ; the 
site of St. Paul's (Episcopal) Church was a rich wheat-field; 
the site of the old Kew York Hospital was once a fine or- 
chard; the Bible House and Cooper Institute cover what at 
a later period was devoted to luxurious gardens. The central 



POPULATION AT DIFFERENT PERIODS. 



103 



portion of the island was during the English colonial period 
mapped out into rich productive farms, where men of means 
settled, became rich, and left their names in the streets that 
were afterwards constructed. 

The city proper now extends from the Battery northward, 
and is compactly built for six miles, and irregularly to the 
Harlem river. The few vacant lots below Fifty-ninth street 
are being rapidly improved, and a vast amount of building is 
going on much farther up. Gardening is still conducted on 
a splendid scale on the upper portions of the island, though 
these green plots are being constantly encroached upon by 
the advance of the mason and the joiner. On the west side, 
through Bloomingdale, Manhattanville, and Washington 
Heights, may be found still some of the old country mansions 
and yards of the good lang syne, and many modern palatial 
residences glittering with costly splendor. 



II. POPULATION AT DIFFERENT PERIODS. 



IHE growth of the city has been rapid, as 
g^ a few statistics will show. In 1656 the 
population amounted to 1,000, in 1664 
to 1,500, in 1700 to 5,000, in 1750 
to 13,500, in 1774 to 22,750, in 1800 to 60,489, 
in 1820 to 123,706, in 1830 to 202,589, in 1840 
to 312,932, in 1850 to 515,547, and in 1860 
to 813,669. In consequence of the high prices 
occasioned by the war, and the disorganized 
condition of the various industrial pursuits, the 
census of 1865 showed a decrease in the popula- 
tion, which amounted to 726,386. The census returns of 1870 
place the population of the island at 942,252. It is proba- 
ble that the population of the island will eventually reach a 
million and a half, and perhaps even more. Many portions 




104 NEW YORK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS. 

of the city have long since been deserted by the better classes 
of society, but their departure has been speedily followed by 
a much denser packing of the localities thus deserted. In 
1800 the fashionable part of the city was in "Wall and Pine 
streets, and between Broadway and Pearl. It has gradually 
moved northward, lingering in our day long around Union 
Square, which has at last been deserted, and it is difficult 
deciding where tlie matter will end. When the plan for the 
erection of the City Hall was made, about seventy years ago, 
it was urged that the city would never extend above Cham- 
bers street ; hence the rear wall of the edifice was made of 
sandstone, and not of marble like the rest, because it was said 
it would never be seen. To fill the entire island and suburbs, 
would produce an immensely smaller change than has already 
occurred since that time. Tliere are now about sixty-five 
thousand buildings on the island, many of which cover 
several lots, and not a few twenty or thirty each ; and as 
fully one thousand acres are covered by the parks and reser- 
voirs, there is not as much vacant land remaining as many 
writers have supposed. The vicinity of Central Park is now 
considered the most eligible part of' the city; but who can 
tell but even this may yet become a grand commercial 
theatre, as many places already have which w^ere once held 
sacred by a generation long since departed ? Some sections 
in the lower wards are now packed with a population 
amounting to the appalling figure of two hundred and ninety- 
thousand to the square mile. If this should become general, 
the island would contain over six millions. Hundreds of 
residences are annually rising on the upper parts of the 
island, but an equally large number farther down are being 
converted into places of business ; and this, we opine, will 
continue until the entire island is one vast centre of com- 
merce, manufacture, and storage. Thirty years will proba- 
bly entirely drive the Slite from the island. The bridges 
and tunnels now in immediate prospect will Iiasten this 
result, make the surrounding country for miles the real sub- 



STREETS AND AVENUES OF NEW YORK. 



105 



nrbs of the metropolis, and iill it with wealtli and palatial 
splendor. Already many tlionsands doing business here daily, 
reside in other places, not a few thirty, and some fifty miles 
up the Hudson. It has been estimated that two hundred 
thousand persons daily cross the East river, while not many 
less cross on the other side to New Jersey, Staten Island, or 
depart on the railroads running north. The construction of 
a railroad on the west s^de of the Hudson, and a bridge 
across the East river, at Blackwell's Island, will open eligible 
sections for suburban residences hitherto inaccessible to the 
business public of Manhattan. These enterprises cannot 
long be delayed. 



III. STREETS A^TD AVENUES OF NEW YORK. 

THE PLAX, THE PAVEMENTS, ANB THE MODES OF TRAVEL — WALL 
STREET BROAD STREET — BROADWAY FIFTH AVENUE BOULE- 
VARD. 



iT^y^^HE early settlers of Manhattan 
had no conception of the propor- 
tions the town was ultimately to 
assume, and, hence, formed no 
comprehensive plan for its ontlay. 
^^filsi^j.j-jfe.:^^ j/ 'nM In 1656 they resolved to lay out 
qSjli^^^^^jm the streets of the city, which was 
I^iljl4i*SS^^^^^ff clone in a most grotesque manner. 
l.Ml«^U^^P^;5^«8 Washington Irving ludicrously 
describes the occurrence thus: 
" The sage council not being able 
to determine upon any plan for the building of their city, the 
cows, in a laudable fit of patriotism, took it under their pe- 
culiar charge, and as they went to and from pasture, estab- 
lished paths through the bushes, on each side of which the 




106 NEW YOKK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS. 

good folks built their houses, which is one cause of the 
rambling and picturesque turns and labyrinths which distin- 
guish certain streets of xs'ew Tork at this very day," Many of 
the streets in the lower part of the city have been straightened 
and improved at vast expense. On the 3d of April, 1807, 
an Act was passed, appointing Simeon Dewitt, Gouverneur 
Morris, and John Rutherford, to lay out by careful survey 
the whole island, which was accordingly done, and the map 
of the same filed in the secretary's office in March, 1811. 
To the commendable forethought of these gentlemen is the 
city indebted for the admirable arrangement of its uptown 
streets and avenues. Tliis survey extended to One Hundred 
and Fifty-fourth street, but it has since been extended to 
Kings Bridge. Below Fourteenth street much irregularity 
still exists in the streets, and probably always will, to the 
infinite perplexity of strangers ; but above that point the 
avenues and streets run at right angles to each other, the 
direction of the former being nearly north and south, and the 
latter east and west, from river to river, and numbering each 
way from Fifth avenue. The avenues number from south 
to north. 

The streets, avenues, squares, and places on Manhattan 
now number nearly seven hundred, about three hundred 
miles of which are paved, and are illuminated at night by 
about nineteen thousand gas lamps. The first pavements 
were laid in what is now Stone street, between Broad and 
Whitehall streets, in 1658. Bridge street was paved the same 
year, and several others running through marshy sections soon 
after. These pavements were of cobble-stone, without side- 
walks, and with wooden gutters running through the centre 
of the streets. Broadway was paved in this manner, in 1707, 
from Trinity Church to Bowling Green. 

In 1790 the first sidewalks on Manhattan were laid. They 
extended along Broadway, from Vesey to Murray street, and 
on the opposite side for the same distance along the Bride- 
well fence. These were narrow pavements of brick, flag- 



STREETS AND AVENUES OF NEW TOKK. 107 

stone being yet unknown to the authorities. No plan for 
numbering the streets was considered until 1793, when a 
crude system was introduced. The old cobble-stone pave- 
ments have been succeeded by the Belgian or square-stone ; 
and of late the Nicolson and the Stafford, different styles of 
wooden, have been introduced. A concrete pavement, com- 
posed of gravel, broken stone, cinders, coal ashes, mixed in 
definite proportions with tar, pitch, resin, and asphaltmn, 
has been spread over the streets, with tolerable success in 
some instances, and perfect failure in others. Eighty-five 
miles of the Belgian have been laid, which probably gives the 
best satisfaction of any introduced. It consists of blocks of 
bluish trap-rock, made slightly pyramidal in form, and set in 
sand with the base upward. It is very even and durable. 

The avenues, from First to Twelfth, numbering fi-om the 
East river, are designed to be eight miles long (except the 
Sixth and Seventh, which are cut oft" l^y Central Park), are 
one hundred feet wide (except Lexington and Madison, 
which are eighty feet), and one thousand feet apart. The 
cross streets are from one mile to two and a half miles in 
length, sixty feet wide (except one in ten, which is one hun- 
dred), and two hundred and sixty feet apart. The first city 
railroad was constructed in 1852, and opened with great cere- 
mony, the President of the United States officiating. There 
are now seventeen lines of horse cars, and numerous omnibus 
lines, which carry in the aggregate a hundred million passen- 
gers annually. These run continuously in all directions, 
though most of them pass or terminate near the City Hall, 
which is still the great centre of business attraction. The 
one hundred and ten monthly magazines, the thirteen daily, 
and the two hundred and forty weekly, newspapers are nearly 
all printed within sight of the City Hall, Park Eow and 
Printing House square producing many of them. 

The City Hall, the centre of the city government, the 
Court House, the Hall of Eecords, the printing, the general 
Post Office, the principal wholesaling, insurance, and banking 



108 >rEW TOEK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS. 

houses, being clustered in the lower part of the city, make it 
the business centre toward which everything still converges. 
The principal ferries to New Jersey, Staten Island, and 
Brooklyn make their landings opposite this locality ; and op- 
posite this point is now being constructed the lofty East 
river bridge. Streets in this locality are crowded with cars, 
carriages, omnibuses, loaded carts, and wagons of every de- 
scription, from dawn 'till dark, at all seasons of the year, heat 
and storm but slightly interfering with the busy programme. 
Bankers, merchants, clerks, agents, in line, persons of both 
sexes, and of every age, calling, and country, go rushing by 
with such rapidity that the modest countryman, though anx 
ious to cross one of these surging thoroughfares, finds himself 
much in the situation of the rustic in Horace, who stood wait- 
ing on the bank for the river to run by. 

The two principal lines of uptown travel are through Hud- 
son street and Eighth avenue on the west, and Bowery and 
Third avenue on the east. The elevated railroad, the track 
laid on iron posts about sixteen feet above the i^avement, 
passes up Greenwich street and Ninth avenue, Yarious 
methods for securing rapid transit are being agitated at this 
time. The plan for the " Pneumatic Tunnel " involves the 
construction of an underground road, commencing at South 
Ferry, extending under Broadway to Central Park and above 
that point, together with a Fourth avenue branch to Harlem 
river. The company claim that, when the road is completed, 
they will be able to transport more than twenty thousand 
persons per hour each way. 

The " Underground liailroad^'' proper, is another inde- 
pendent and separate enterprise. 

The " Arcade Railiuay^'' if constructed, contemplates the 
use of the width of the streets and avenues under whicli it 
passes, excepting five feet on each side, to secure the founda- 
tions of the buildings. The road will contain sidewalks, 
roadway, lamp posts, telegraph wires, hydrants, and sewers, 
the whole covered with arches of solid masonrv, rendered 



WARREN ST 




Lndeb Broax)\vat— Intekior op Passenger Cab. 

THE BROADWAY PNEUMATIC U^TDERGROUND RAILWAY. 



WALL STREET. 109 

water-tight, and supported by heavy iron columns. The 
routes selected are the line of Broadway from the Battery to 
the intersection of Ninth avenue, thence to Hudson river ; 
also branching at Union square, and following the line of 
Fourth avenue to the Harlem river. It is estimated to cost 
over $2,000,000. 

The " Viaduct Railway ^^ is another style of elevated road. 
This wealthy company proposes to erect its lower depot at 
Tryon Row, causing its road to form an easy connection with 
the East river bridge. This road, if constructed, will run 
through the rear of the blocks, have a line on the east- 
ern and one on the western side of the city, each extend- 
ing to Westchester County. It is to be built on brick 
arches, supported by heavy iron columns, which will them- 
selves stand on inverted arches of solid masonry constructed 
in the ground. It is estimated to cost from $10,000,000 to 
$20,000,000. One of these roads is certain to be constructed 
at no distant day. 

Nassau, a narrow and gloomy street, has long been the 
trade centre of cheap and miscellaneous books, though much 
of this has lately found its way up town. 

WALL STREET. 

Wall, a short and crooked street, though immensely 
straighter than many who spend their time in it, is the great 
financial centre of the country, and is lined for the most 
part with magnificent banking-houses. On the corner of 
Nassau, stretching from Wall to Pine, and fronting on each, 
stands what was originally the Custom House, now the Sub- 
Treasury, a white-marble fije-proof building, ninety feet by 
two hundred, with a rotunda sixty feet in diameter, the dome 
supported by sixteen Corinthian pillars. The building occu- 
pies the site of the old Federal Hall, where President Wash- 
ington was inaugurated ; it is a partial imitation of the Par- 
thenon at Athens, and cost nearly twelve hundred thousand 



110 NEW YORK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS. 

dollars. Here the Governraent deposits its one hundred 
millions of 2^old, and here its great monetary transactions are 
made. In the basement is the pension bureau. Farther 
down, and on the opposite side of the street, stands what was 
built for the Merchants' Exchange. It covei-s an entire 
block ; its portico is supported by twelve front, four centre, 
and two rear Ionic columns thirty-eight feet long, four and 
a half in diameter, each formed from a single granite block 
weighing forty-five tons. The rotunda is eighty feet in 
diameter, and the crown of the dome, which rests on eight 
Corinthian columns of Italian marble, is one hundred and 
twenty-four feet high. It was built many years ago, by an 
incorporated company, and cost $1,800,000. It was pur- 
chased by the Government several years since for $1,000,000 
and is now the United States Custom House. As London is 
England, so, in a sense, Wall street is New York, if not 
America. Here " Bears " and " Bulls " in sheep's clothing 
meet in frequent and fierce rencounter, and alternately claw 
and gore each other. Beneath the frowns of the lofty spire 
of old Trinity, these calculating votaries of mammon play with 
fortunes as bo^^s do with bubbles, and while a few rise and soar, 
many decline and bui-st. Wall street seldom contains above 
fifteen millions of gold outside the Sub -Treasury, but the nec- 
essary and speculative transactions in this alone armount daily 
to seventy millions, and on the 24:th of September, 1869, 
amounted to several hundred millions, one broker alone pur- 
chasing to the amount of sixty millions. The gold transac- 
tions of 1869 are said to have reached thirty billions, and the 
aggregate business of Governments and stocks, to have also 
exceeded twenty billions. The rapidity with which money is 
counted, and vast amounts of stocks, bonds, and miscellaneous 
securities exchanged, is perfectly astonishing. Most of the 
counter-trade is performed by young men and striplings, the 
advanced and calculating minds spending most of their time in 
the private ofiSce. The most crowded and busy centres of 



BROAD STEEET — BEOADWAT. Ill 

New York appear cheap and tame, after spending an hour in 
Wall street. 

BROAD STREET. 

The continuation of the narrow Nassau proper south of 
Wall street, having all at once strangely widened, is called 
Broad street. During the last few years brokers and specu- 
lators of every description have crowded into its silent pre- 
cincts, until it has become the most noisy and tumultuous 
speculative centre on the island. Here stands the elegant 
marble structure containing the far-famed, gorgeously fur- 
nished Oold Room, where the daily sales take place, often 
amid such excitement and din as we cannot describe. The 
Board of Brokers was organized in 1794, and the entrance 
fee lias risen from fifty dollars to three thousand. The Board 
numbers about fom- hundred and seventy members in good 
standing. Each member has a safe in the vault, with a 
combination lock. The Board claims to be composed of 
honest and honorable men only. Besides this there are various 
other specific boards of all kinds of ^^eawXo.tovQ—stOGh'hroJcers 
(jold-hroliers^ oil-hroTfers^ and cliques — uniting and dissolving 
as occasion may offer opportunities of gain to ambitious 
and unscrupulous men. Among these originate the gold 
scrambles, the railroad wars, the raid on the banks, and other 
panics which crowd the streets with well-dressed, but frenzied 
men, some flushed and violent, some pale and staggering, 
turning prematurely gray over the wreck of their earthfy 
hopes. 

BROADWAY. 

Broadway begins at Castle Garden, the extreme southern 
point of Manhattan, unites at the Central Park with the 
Boulevard, making the longest street on the island, thirteen 
and one-half miles, and is lighted by over one thousand gas 
lamps. This street is eighty feet wide, and contains many 



112 NEW YORK AND ITS ESrSTITTJnONS. 

of the principal bnsiness houses, hotels, and places of amuse- 
ment. Not a few of these cover an entire block, are built of 
marble or iron, are five, six, and sometimes seven stories above 
ground, and two below, with well-lighted vaults extending to 
near the centre of the streets. Broadway is the glittering 
promenade of wealth, beauty, fashion, and curiosity. 



FIFTH AVENUE. 

While Eighth avenue is the principal avenue for business 
purposes. Fifth avenue is distinguished for the splendor of 
its private residences, to which, with the exception of a few 
magnificent churches and institutions, it is entirely devoted. 
It begins at Washington square, near the centre of the city, 
and extends northward in a perfectly straight line for six 
miles, and is pre-eminently the street of palaces. The build- 
ings are large, constructed of marble, or of the several varie- 
ties of free-stone, the fronts ornamented with cornices, 
entablatures, porticos, and columns, elegantly carved and 
sculptured. Everything is massive and expensive, and the 
surrounding streets so far partake of its magnificence that 
one may travel miles amid unbroken lines of palatial splen- 
dor. Here dwell the millionaires who control so largely the 
shipping, the railroad, the banking, and the legislative inter- 
ests of the country. Much unoccupied space still remains 
on this peerless avenue for wealth and genius to lavish their 
dazzling inventions. For the relief of Broadway, Laurens 
street is now being widened and made to connect Fifth ave- 
nue with "West Broadway. This opens another general 
thoroughfare for uptown travel, and will probably attract its 
share of business fii-ms. It will greatly disturb the quiet and, 
mar the beauty of the lower portion of this brilliant avenue, 
and already a number of its palaces, near Union square, 
have been converted into business houses. 



THE BOULEVARD. 

We live in a fast age, and Kew Yorkers are a fast people , 
hence, it seemed intolerable to some that the law regulating 
driving at the Park should restrict every man to six miles an 
hour, and arrest, summarily every blood who dared to disre- 
gard the rule. Nor was the private trotting course between 
the Park and High Bridge adequate to the demand. A 
great jjuhlio drive, broad and long, where hundreds of fleet 
horses could be exercised in a single hour, was the demand 
that came welling up from the hearts of thousands. One 
was accordingly laid out on the line of the old Bloomingdale 
Poad, beginning at Fifty-ninth street with an immense circle 
for turning vehicles. On the 21st of September, 1868, the 
work of grading commenced ; and during 1869 an average 
force of 740 men was employed. This street extends from 
Fifty-ninth to One Hundred and Fifty-iifth street, a distance 
of about five miles, is one hundred and fifty feet wide, with 
a nan-ow line of shrubbery and flowers extending through 
the centre, defended by solid curbstones. In the construc- 
tion of this street it was found necessary to remove, by exca 
vation and blasting, 350,000 cubic yards of rock and earth, 
and to provide and deposit 300,000 cubic yards in certain 
depressed localities, to perfect the grade. The bed of the 
street is formed of set stone, covered with pounded stone, 
after which it is graveled, rolled, and the surface otherwise 
improved. The sidewalks are very capacious. This street 
is expected to be one of the later wonders of Manhattan, and 
land is held at fabulous prices along its entire length. 



114: NEW YORK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS. 

TV. 

THE ARCHITECTUKE OF MANHATTAN. 

HOTELS, ASTOR HOUSE — FIFTH AVENUE ST. NICHOLAS — GRAND 

CENTRAL COOPER INSTITUTE ACADEMY OF DESIGN THEATERS 

AMERICAN BIBLE HOUSE PUBLISHING HOUSES THE PARK BANK 

LIFE INSURANCE BUILDINGS CITY HALL NEW yORK COURT- 
HOUSE NEW YORK POST-OFFICE — STORES : A. T. STEWARt's — 

CLAFLIn's LORD & TAYLOr's TIFFANY & CO, NUMBER OF 

BUILDINGS. 

%/<p]UE architecture of Manhattan has 
[ j:reat]^ varied in the different periods 
' -~ c'f its history. As in all new settle- 
ments where timber abomids, the first build- 
inirs ^^ere constructed of logs. Indeed, 
iiothino; else appears to have been emplo^^ed 
until 1017, when the first stone house was finished, 
an e\ent of such transcendent importance, tliat 
tlie gencrou> Dutch celebrated it by drinking one 
hundred and twenty-eight gallons of liquor on the 
occasion. During the first forty years after the 
settlement of Manhattan, the old Holland style of architec- 
ture entirely prevailed. Some of these buildings had narrow 
foundations, with high peaked roofs ; others were broader at 
their base, one, and sometimes two stories high ; the gables, 
which always faced tlie streets, were sometimes of brick, but 
oftener of shingles rounded at the end. Many of the roofs 
were bevelled, projecting at the eaves sufficiently to shelter a 
small regiment of troops. The gutters of many of the houses 
extended to near the centre of the streets, to the great an- 
noyance of travelers in rainy weather. The front entrance 
was usually ornamented with a high wooden porch called a 
stoop, where the women spent the shady jiart of the day. 





MtiiiLilJ 



THE ARCnTTECTUEE OF MANHATTAN. 115 

The more important buildings such as the ^^ Stuyvesant IIuz/s,''^ 
near the water edge, now Moore and Front streets, and the 
^' Stadt-Huys " or City Hall, on Pearl street, were set in the 
foregronnd, to be more readily seen from the river and bay. 
The first bnildings erected on "Wall street were block-houses. 

But if this Holland style lacked elegance, it possessed the 
merit of durability. One in a fine state of preservation 
taken down in 1827, was marked 1698, and many after stand- 
ing more than one hundred years showed no signs of decay. 
The last of these Knickerbockers has now disappeared from 
Manhattan, though they still linger on Long Island, and up 
the Hudson. The English conquest introduced a greater 
variety, which has continued to change and multiply its forms 
until the present time. As early as 1670, stone and brick 
were principally employed ; iron, so extensively used at pres- 
ent, has been introduced during the last thirty years. A 
builder in Water street, about the beginning of the Revolution, 
exchanged leaden sash for wooden, a novelty too great for 
the times, for the trustees of Trinity after the great fire of 
1778 still retained the leaden frame. 

The architecture at present may be said to be thoroughly 
eclectic, as nearly every style known to the student may be 
found, several at times blending, in the"same edifice. Trin- 
ity church on Broadway, is of the Gothic ; St. George's in 
Stuyvesant square, of the Byzantine ; St. Paul's Methodist 
Episcopal, on Fourth avenue, is of the Romanesque ; the City 
Hall is of the Italian ; the Tombs of the Egyptian ; while the 
Synagogues present the Moresque, and the distinctive form of 
the Hebrew style. 

Hotels. — The hotels form an important part of every large 
town, and in many instances one of their chief attractions. 
What would Clifton, or Saratoga, or New York be to the 
great traveling public, without their hotels. The hotels of 
Xew York rank among the largest and finest in the world^ 
Among them may be mentioned the Astor, Metropolitan, St. 
Nicholas, St. James, St. Cloud, Hoffman, Everett, Claren- 



116 



NEW YORK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS. 



don, New York, Fifth Avenue, Grand Central, Gilsey, and a 
hundred more, many of wliich are of equal notoriety. 








FIFTH AVENUE HOTEL. 

The Astoe House was erected in 1836, by John Jacob 
Astor, then the richest man in America. It is a six-story 
granite, on Broadway, overlooking the City Hall Park, and 
covers the spot where Mr. Astor resided during most of his 
business life. The front extends across a narrow block, and 
tlie building affords accommodations for six hundred guests. 
Architecture on Manhattan has so decidedly improved since 
its erection, that its glory has long since departed. Its exte- 
rior appears sombre and heavy, its windows are small and 
unadorned, no balcony or colonnade tempts the inmates into 
public view, and its single massive entrance is not really in- 
viting. Under the management of the Stetsons it has, how- 
ever, long ranked among the very first hotels of America. 



THE ARCHITECTURE OF MANHATTAN. 117 

Fifth Avenxte hotel stands opposite Madison sqnare, at 
the jnnction of Broadway, Fifth avenue, and Twenty-third 
street. The structure is of white marble, six stories liiijh, 
fronting on three streets, and after devoting, as is the custom, 
most of its first floor to stores, has accommodations for a 
thousand guests. It is beautifully located and forms a rich 
center of fashion and speculation. It was erected and is 
still owned by Mr. Amos R. Eno, formerly a New-England 
youth and the architect of his own fortune. 

The St. Nicholas, opened in 1854, stands on Broadway, 
between Broome and Spring streets. The structure is of 
white marble and brown freestone, is six stories high, with six 
hundred rooms, and can accommodate a thousand persons. 
The St. Nicholas is also a richly furnished hotel, conducted 
on the American or full-board plan, and has been the theater 
of many brilliant occasions. 

The Grand Central hotel, opened August 24, 1870, is the 
largest in the United States. It stands on Broadway between 
Amity and Bleecker streets, with a frontage of 175 feet, and 
extends to Mercer street, being 200 feet in depth. It covers 
the ground once occupied by the Lafarge House, afterwards 
the Southern Hotel and the Winter Garden Theatre. The 
edifice is constructed of brick and marble, is ten stories high, 
and covers fourteen full lots, for some of which Mr. Higgins 
paid eighty-three thousand dollars apiece. The dining-room 
affords space for 600 persons to sit at table at once; the 
plate and furniture are magnificent, costing half a million, 
and the arrangements for observation, health, and comfort, 
the most exquisite. The building is 127 feet high at the 
cornice, which is surmounted by a heavy Mansard roof, tlie 
top of tlie flag-staff being 197 feet above the pavement. 
Thirty miles of steam coil are employed in heating the edi- 
flce, the floors amount to 350,000 square feet, requiring seven 
acres of carpeting, besides an acre of marble tiling ; and the 
cooks, waiters, chambermaids, hallmen, and clerks amount to 



lis 



NEW YORK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS. 




GKANL) CENTUAL HOTEL, BROADWAY, OrPOSlTE bUJSD STiiEBT. 



a small brigade. The price of board is $3, $3.50, and $4 per 
day. 

Cooper Institute, a fine six-story brown-stone, covering a 
block between Seventh and Eighth streets, Third and Fourth 
avenues, is a munificent donation from the man whose name 
it bears, and cost nearly half a million. Its enlightened pro- 
jector grew up in poverty, with scanty means of culture, and 
the building is the fruit of frugal toil, coupled with a long- 
cherished desire to promote a knowledge of science and art 
among the laboring classes. It contains vast halls for lec- 
tures, a fine reading-room, evening-schools for young ladies, 
mechanics, and apprentices, galleries of art, and collections of 
rare inventions. The large lecture-room in the basement is 
the most popular public hall in the city, and has echoed to 



THE ARCHITECTUKE OF MANHATTAN. 



119 




COOPER UMON 

(Eig/Ufi street, between Third and Fourth avetuies.) 

the eloquence of the most noted men of this country, and 
many from Europe. It was in this hall that Eed Cloud de- 
livered his great address in the early summer of 1870. The 
first floor of the building is rented for stores, and brings an 
income of nearly thirty thousand dollars. 

The Free Night Classes in Cooper Union had an average 
attendance during February, 1871, as follows: School of Sci- 
ence, 276 ; School of Art, 643 ; School of Telegraphy, 35 ; 
Scientific Lectures, 545; Oratory Class, 100; total, 1,569. 
The new classes in English literature and the French lan- 
guage were attended by 200 and 100, respectively, bringing 
up the general total of attendance to over 1,800. The School 
of Design for girls and women has been attended by over 
eighty daily, and that of Engraving for women by 26. The 



120 



NEW YORK AND ITS INSTITUTH)NS. 



number of visitors to the free reading-room was 29,383 ; mim- 
ber of books used, 4,509. 




ACADEMY OV DESIGN. 



Thp: Academy of Design, on tiie corner of Fourth avenue 
and Twenty-third street, though not particularly large, is still 
a building before which the observer will pause, to glance at 
its Gothic windows and marl)le walls of many colors, col- 
lected from various parts of Europe and America. The vis- 
itor is not slow to conclude that the exterior is, indeed, one of 



Theaters. — The first building erected for a theater on the 
island was in 1761, and opened with the tragedy of " Fair 
Penitent." The mob destroyed it during the excitement oc- 
casioned by the "Stamp Act," in 1766. The business has 
proved so profitable, that, notwithstanding the fearful havoc 
made among these houses of wicked amusement by fires and 
other casualties, they have always been too numerous, and far 




The Astok Library— La Fayette Place, near 8th Street. 
( The above cut represents but half the present building.) 



THE ARCHITECTURE OF MANHATTAN. 



121 




BOOTH'S THEATER. 



too largely patronized for the interests of good morals. 
About twenty houses of this kind are now maintained ; many 
of them are of costly constructure, the Academy of Music, 
Fisk's Grand Opera House, Booth's New Theater, Niblo's, and 
Wallack's ranking among the first. 

The Astor Library Building, in Lafayette Place, with an 
imposing entablature, marble steps and floor, is the largest 
and finest library-room in America. It was projected by the 
bequest of John Jacob Astor, and afterwards enlarged by 
his son William B. Astor. The accompanying cut represents 
the original structm-e and but half of the building as it now 
stands. 

The American Bible House, a plain six-story brick, with 
cellar and vaults, was completed in 1853, at a cost, including 
ground, of $303,000. It covers three-fourths of an acre, form- 



122 NEW YORK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS. 

ing a front on four streets, of 710 feet. The fronts on Fourth 
avenue and Astor place are divided into five sections each. 
The principal entrance on Fourth avenue is decorated with 
four round columns with Corinthian capitals and moulded 
bases, resting upon paneled and moulded pedestals, and semi- 
circular arches are placed between the columns to form the 
heads of doors, and all surmounted with a heavy cornice and 
segment pediments. The boilers are placed in the area in the 
centre of the building, so inclosed as not likely to endanger 
the operatives in case of accident. Fifty stores and ofiices 
are rented in the building, mostly to benevolent societies, 
bringing an income of nearly $40,000, and making the Bible 
House the principal centre of benevolent and reformatory 
movements for the city and State. The Society was organized 
in 1816, since which its receipts have considerably exceeded 
$5,000,000. It has printed the Scriptures in twenty-nine dia- 
lects, assisted in publishing and circulating many of the one 
hundred and eighty-five versions issued by the British and 
Foreign Bible Society, and has three times canvassed the en- 
tire United States, supplying hundreds of tliousands of desti- 
tute families with the Word of God. The Society employs 
about five hundred hands, and carries on every branch of its 
vast business in its own building. The Bible House is visited 
annually by thousands of strangers, and can scarcely cease to 
be an object. of profoundest interest. 

The Publishing Houses of New York form an imposing 
and interesting department of the city. The buildings of the 
Harpers, the Appletons, and of Charles Scribner & Co., are 
very extensive. The new Methodist Publishing and Mission 
Buildings, corner of Broadway and Eleventh street, are the 
headquarters of the most extensive denominational publish- 
ing interests in the world. The enterprise began in Philadel- 
phia in 1789, with a borrowed capital of $600. In 1804 it 
was removed to New York, and in 1836 was destroyed by fire, 
inflicting a loss of $250,000 upon the denomination. Besides 
paying for various chm-ch interests $1,335,866.25, the agents 



THE ARCIIITECTCKE OF MANHATTAN 



123 



in 1868 reported a net capital of $1,165,024.55, wliich lias 
since been increased to over $1,500,000. The new buildino-s 




MFTII I I III 1 I 

(Broadica>j, 



Eleventh street.) 



on Broadway were purchased in April, 1869, and cost nearly 
a million dollars. The structure is of iron, with five lofty 
stories, and a basement which extends nineteen feet under 
Broadway and fourteen feet under Eleventh street, and has a 
floor of nearly half an acre. Besides furnishing salerooms 
for books and periodicals, elegant offices for agents, editors, 
missionary secretaries, rooms for committees, preachers' meet- 
ings, etc., etc., enough is still rented to pay the interest on the 
cost of the entire building. 

Many of the periodicals of New York are issued from 
colossal iron-fronted structures, which would have been an 
astonishment to our fathers. The Herald building, covering 
the site of Barnura's old museum, is perhaps among the finest 



124 



NEW YORK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS. 



of this class. The Times hnilding, erected several yeai-s 
earlier, is another fine structure, occupying a commanding 
position at the head of Park Row, that ominous center of 
compositors and printing ink. Near by stands Printing- 




KEW YORK HERALD BUILDINO AND PARK BANK. 
{Broadway, come, Ann street.) 

House square, in or around which are published the Trihune^ 
World, Ohserver, Sim, Day-Booh, Examiner and Chronicle, 
Scientific American, Evening Mail, Bajptist Union, Rural 
New Yorker, Inde2)endeni, the Agrictdturist, Methodist, 
Christian Union, etc. 



THE ARCHITECTURE OF MANHATTAN. 125 

The Park Bank, adjoining the JleraM hmld'mg and facing 
St. Paul's (Episcopal) church, is an elaborate and (colossal niar- 
Me structure, erected at vast expense, and forms one of the 
most striking architectural wonders on lower Broadway. The 
interior is if possible more exquisite in its appointments tlian 
the exterior. The offices and business parlors of its chief 
•officers are cushioned and otherwise gilded and adorned in 
the richest manner. 

The Life Insurance Companies have of late virtually un- 
dertaken to excel all othei'S in architectural enterprises. The 
building just reared by the Equitable Life Insurance Com- 
2>any, on the corner of Cedar street and Broadway, is an ex- 
ample of what men and money can accomplish, and may be 
termed one of the later wonders of Manhattan. It has a 
frontage of S7 feet on Broadway, is 187 feet deep on Cedar 
street, and is 187 feet high. Its massive iron columns and 
substantial construction give the surest evidence of perman- 
ency. 

The building of the N'evj York Life Imurance Com])any, 
corner of Broadway and Leonard street, is scarcely less strik- 
ing. It is constructed of white marble in the Ionic order, its 
chief entrance-way being richly ornamented. The public 
need not be alarmed at the report of the millions lavished 
by the managers of these companies on imposing business 
temples, as tlie demand for first-class offices is so great that 
a large revenue is annually realized from the investment. 

The City Hall, commenced in 1803 and completed in 
1811, was for many years the finest edifice in America. It is 
216 feet long and 105 wide. The front and ends are of white 
marble and the rear of Kew York free-stone. The Mayor, 
■clerk of the common council, and many other officials occupy 
its rooms. On the second floor is the Governor's room, 52 by 
20 feet, used for the reception of distinguished visitors. It 
contains General AVashington's writing-desk, on which he 
penned his first message to Congress, and is decorated with 
many fine portraits of the Governors of New York, and other 



12G 



KEW YORK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS. 



distinguislied Americans. The building is surmounted by a 
tower containing a bell weighing over 9,000 pounds, and a 




cupola in which is a four-dial clock of superior workmanship, 
and is otherwise ornamented with a figure of Justice. The 
building cost over half a million, a large sum for those days. 
In the rear of the City Hall, and fronting on Chambers street, 
the authorities have been for eight years engaged in the erec- 
tion of the New York Court-House. The building is 250 . 
feet long, 150 wide, and the crown of the dome when com- 
pleted will be 210 feet above the pavement. The walls are 
of Massachusetts white marble, the beams, staircases, and out- 
side doors are of iron, while black walnut and the choicest 
Georgia-pine are employed in finishing the interior. Some 
of the iron beams and girders weigh over twenty-iive tons 
each. The halls are all covered with marble tiling. The 
main entrance on Chambers street is reached by a fliirht of 



THE AKCHITECTURE OF MANJIATrAX. 



127 



broad steps ornamented with marble pillars. The architect 
lias suggested the idea of making the tower crowning the 
apex of the dome a light-house, which from its great heiglit 
could be seen from vessels far out at sea. The edifice is Cor- 
inthian in style, much larger and richer in finish than anj 
public building hitherto erected on Manhattan, and is costing 
the public vast sums. Many private purses are believed to 
have been unduly filled in connection with its construction. 




Oin POST-OFFICE. 

{Corner Nanaau and Liberty streets.) 



The Kkw York Post-Office, now being constructed at 
the southern point of City Hall Park, nearly opposite the As- 
tor House, will be somewhat triangular in form, with a front 
of 279 feet toward the Park, two equal lateral fa9ades of 
262| on Broadway and Park Eow, and a front of 144 feet at 
the south-western extremity. The walls are to be of Dix Is- 
land granite, three stories besides basement and attic, the main 



128 inSW YORK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS. 

cornice 80 feet above the sidewalk, and the crown of the 
central dome 160 feet. The windows are to be semicircular- 
headed throughout, the archivolts ornamented with voussoirs, 
and carried on projecting pilasters. The inside, which is to be 
devoted to the General Post-Office department and the United 
States Court, will have its appropriate appointments and cor- 
ridors, while its exterior will be adorned with a profusion of 
classic pillars, balconies, balustrades, and other marks of 
genius. It will probably take several years to complete it, and 
cost as many millions. The post-office department of New 
York is a colossal enterprise. Over one hundred tons of mail 
matter are handled every twenty-four hours. 

Many of the merchants of Manhattan are immensely richer 
than the ancient kings, owning stores the floors of which cover 
from five to fifteen acres, employ thousands of clerks, porters, 
and seamstresses, and count their income by the million. 

Me. a. T. Stewart's retail store, at the corner of Tenth 
street and Broadway, has eight fioors, which, if spread out 
singly, would cover over fifteen acres. His sales in this build- 
ing average $80,000 per day, and the daily ^dsitors number 
from 15,000 to 50,000, according to the season, Mr. Stew- 
art has just erected the most costly private residence on the 
continent for himself and family. It stands at the corner of 
Fifth avenue and Thirty-fourth street, is of white marble, and 
said to have cost over two millions. Mr. Stewart paid last 
year a larger income-tax than either of twenty-seven States 
and more than nine of our territories combined. This gen- 
tleman has also an immense wholesale store near the City 
Hall doing a vast business, and is in this line only excelled by 
H. B. Claflin & Co., who have not only the largest wholesale 
store, but are the heaviest dealers in dry -goods in America. 
Their store has a frontage of eighty feet, and extends from 
Church street to West Broadway along Worth street, a dis- 
tance of 375 feet. Beside many purchasing agents abroad, 
there are about five hundred clerks and other employes 
attending to the everyday affairs of this colossal business 





Cttstom House— Wall Street. 







States Treasury BuiLDixG-Cor. Wall and Nassau Street. 



THE AKCHITECTUEE OF MANHATTAN. 129 

theater. The sales of the house have reached seventy mil- 
lions in a year, and one million in a single day. Mr. Claflin 
worships at Plymouth Church, Brooklyn. 

Lord & Taylor have just added another immense business 
palace to the Metropolis. It stands at the corner of Twentieth 
street and Broadway, is of the composite order, with a front of 
110 feet, a depth of 128, and a height of 122 feet. Its solidity 
may be imagined from the fact that over a thousand tons of 
iron were employed in its construction. Though one of the 
most massive structures on the island, its front is so profusely 
and tastefully ornamented that one almost forgets that it is a 
place of business. 

Tiffany & Company have also just erected a line building 
on the southwest corner of Union square, on the site origin- 
ally covered by Dr. Cheever's church. They are said to be 
the largest dealers in jewelry in the world, their sales amount- 
ing to several millions per annum, and probably have the 
largest and finest store of its kind yet constructed. 

There are now about sixty-five thousand buildings on the 
island, of which about thirty-four thousand are of brick, 
t';venty thousand of stone, and eleven thousand of wood. 
Twenty thousand of these are occupied as tenant-houses and 
contain over half the population. Many of the churches are 
large and beautiful, worthy of the times and the people who 
built them, though it is not complimentary to our Protestant 
evangelical Christianity, that the three largest enterprises in 
church architecture undertaken on the island during the last 
ten years, should result in a Jewish synagogue, a Universa- 
list church, and a Roman Catholic cathedral. 

Choice architecture on Manhattan amomits to a practical 
science, which is much studied, and some intrepid genius is 
every year seeking to eclipse all his predecessors. At this 
writing the Free Masons are erecting a superb temple on 
Sixth avenue and Twenty-third street ; a fine building called 
the Seamen's Exchange is rising on Cherry street, at an ex- 
pense of §100,000, to contain a reading room, sa^-ings bank. 



130 NEW YORK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS. 

and other means for improving the condition of sailors. The 
Industrial Exhibition Company have purchased a plot of twen- 
ty-two acres between Third and Fourth avenues, at One Hun- 
dredth street, and are preparing to erect a vast crystal palace, 
the dimensions of which are to be so immense, that the crys- 
tal palace of nineteen years ago will be remembered as a 
mere " toy-house." What the next generation will undertake 
we shall not attempt to divine. 



BUSINESS IN NEW YORK. 



CAUSES OF BUSINESS FAILURE — BUSINESS IN REAL ESTATE — 

CLASSES OF RICU MEN POLITICIANS SPECULATORS AND STOCK 

GAJIBLERS — SUCCESS OF GREAT MEN. 





HILE it is true that business is essen- 
tially the same the world over, it is 
equally true that in a great city every- 
thing is accelerated. In great commercial 
I centers business is reduced to a sort of science, 
J and abundant scope is afforded for the play of 
tlie largest and rarest talents. Nearly every man 
in cities has his specialty, which he plies, paying 
little attention to the rest of the world. If one 
thought predominates over all others in the busy 
centers of New York, it is that of dispatch. Ev- 
erything is on a run, and everybody from butcher to baker 
in a hurry. A clerk fi-esh from the country, toiling for his 
board, can scarcely be tolerated on account of his tardiness. 
Steamboats, horse-cars, and stages are too slow to satisfy the 
desires of the rushing masses. Every scheme for elevated 
roads, imderground roads, river bridges, or tunnels meets 
with ten thousand advocates, through the ever-present desire 
to hasten travel and dispatch business. If you call on a busi- 
ness stranger, however important your business, you must be 
able to state it tersely and at once, or you will be summarily 
dismissed without a hearing. Everything goes on the old 
maxim, " Time and tide wait for no man." Men get rich in 
a year, and poor in a day ; " up like a rocket, and down like 
a stick." 



CAUSES OF BUSINESS FAILUEES. 

The number of business failures in the metropolis is over- 
wbelmingly large, and to a stranger almost incredible. Many 
people visit New York, witness its extravagance and glitter, 
trace the records of a few marvellously successful families, 
call on the poor boy of bygone years, and finding him a wealthy 
publisher or importer, dwelling in a palace of brown stone, 
return home confident that wealth in a great city is almost a 
necessity, and that the great misfortune of their lives ha& 
been in consenting to follow the slow and modest occupation 
of their fathers. But success is not the rule in New York. 
Indeed, it is the rare exception. Where one truly and per- 
manently succeeds it is almost safe to say ninety-nine fail. 
There are few houses established which do n<jt sooner or later 
suspend ; some have reorganized and failed a dozen times ; 
nine-tenths of all disappear entirely after a few years, 
leaving here and there one that has triumphantly withstood 
the shocks of thirty years. The observation of the author 
has led to the conclusion that nearly every permanent failure 
may be traced to one of three causes : incompetency, extrav- 
agance, or dishonesty. 

Many who have inherited wealth, and a few who have 
acquired it, conclude that New York opens the one grand 
theater upon which they ought to operate. Hence, they 
launch upon an untried business, in which others have suc- 
ceeded, but in which they, for want of tact and skill, soon 
fail, many of them to rise no more. The mania for rapid 
fortune-making in stocks and other speculations also involves 
thousands. Few sufiiciently understand the chances in the 
stock trade to deal intelligently and successfully. One or 
two successful blunders give assurance, which ends a little 
later in disaster and financial ruin, teaching the sad truth 
when too late, that all men cannot be successful speculators. 

The temptations to extravagance in this age are also so 



CAUSES OF BUSINESS FAILURES. ^ 133 

numerous and potent, that while but few wholly escape the 
charge, the many are by it plunged into financial and moral 
ruin. But few are brave and true enough to cling to first 
principles amid prosperity. It is so very easy to enlarge our 
scale of liviug, and so difiicult to contract it, even when 
necessity admonishes, that multitudes who have industriously 
climbed the rugged heights of fortune become so linked to 
fashion and pleasure, as to finally fail, and then " begin with 
shame to take the lowest seats." New York is largely a 
shoal of financial wrecks. Every month gay and attractive 
families that have led the fashions, and sought to be the 
a,d mired of all admirers, disappear from society, and are 
henceforth to old associations as one dead. Ladies, whose 
rich parlors have been theaters of music, splendor, and fash- 
ion, retire to secluded neighborhoods and ply the needle for 
daily bread. Proud and petted daughters accept such hum- 
ble situations as they can poorly fill, too many descending to 
a life of shame. All through senseless extravagance. Most 
of the leading salesmen in i^ew York are bankrupt-mer- 
chants, many of whom were once wealthy and lived in costly 
splendor. Some of them built marble business houses on 
Broadway which frugality would have saved, but which now 
stand as monuments to mock them in their poverty. 

Dishonesty is another fruitful source of failure. Perma- 
nent success is rarely or never attained without integrity. 
The order of the whole moral universe must be reversed be- 
fore fraud and deception can hope for permanent security. 
Twenty-five years ago a young man opened a store in Xew 
York, and for a time rapidly prospered and amassed fortune. 
He then contracted the unfortunate habit of systematic 
lying. His brightening prospects soon waned, and bank- 
ruptcy followed. His career has since been one of crushing 
disappointments, and after failing in business four times he 
is now a servant. In 18 — a brilliant young man with small 

capital opened a jewelry store in street. For twelve 

jears he was regarded the model of probity, and the star of 



134 NEW YOKE AND ITS INSTITUTIONS. 

his fortune rose and shone with unwonted brilliancy. His 
reputation for thoroughness and integrity was so well estab- 
lished in financial circles, that he could draw fifty thousand 
dollars from the banks on his own security. But, alas ! his 
success corrupted him. He began to invest in real estate, the 
titles being vested in his friends, and soon the community 
Was shocked with the report of his dishonest bankruptcy. 
All his later years which with continued integrity would 
have been the brightest and richest of his earthly career, 
have been darkened with litigation, reproach, and self- 
imposed penury. The policy of providing while in business a 
rich mansion with fine surroundings, vesting the title in the 
modest part of the family, is much resorted to, many ceasing 
to keep up the semblance of solvency as soon as this is accom- 
plished. A woman is as base as a man who will consent to 
be the accomplice in such shocking dishonesty. 

"We ought here to add, perhaps, that there are also a few 
honest and unavoidable failures. Small houses are pros- 
trated by the fall of great ones, aud general depressions, 
panics, and suspensions affect all, but the honest and reliable 
usually soon start again and retrieve their fortunes. 



BUSINESS IN REAL ESTATE. 

Fkom the English conquest to this day transactions in real 
estate have been as safe and profitable as almost any business 
on Manhattan. The early settlers became wealthy by the 
siuiple rise of land, and left vast estates to their posterity. 
William Bayard's farm, which in 1800 was valued at $15,000 
was sold in 1833 for $60,000, to gentlemen who divided it 
and sold it for $260,000, leaving still an ample margin for 
subsequent transactions. When the Central Park was first 
planned, lots could have been bought on Fifth avenue be- 




Lord & Taylors Store— Broadway and 20th Stieet 




0( E\N Steamer Lewino the Poet of New York 



CLASSES OF EICH MEN. 135 

tween Fifty-ninth and Seventy-fifth streets for $500 each, 
which now bring from $18,000 to $25,000 ; above Seventy- 
fifth street they sold for $200 each, now for $10,000 or 
$15,000 each. A plot of fifty-five lots on Eighth avenue, 
purchased a few years since for $11,500, is now valued at 
$300,000 by the successful purchaser, who still holds it. 
Many of the wealthiest and sharpest men deal entirely in real 
estate. Panics affect prices in this kind of property, crushing 
those who deal only in margins, but the solid capitalist who 
invests well is sure to survive depressions and prosper. The 
transactions in real estate in our day are enormous, often 
exceeding a million dollars a day. Business in real estate, 
like all other speculations, opens a theater for sharpers. An 
amusing story is told of a Frenchman who, many years 
ago, when land suddenly rose to great value, concluded to do 
like his neighbors — invest something in city lots. "Without 
examining it, he purchased something or nothing near the 
Wallabout in Brooklyn. Some time after he visited his seller 
to inform him that he had visited the " grant lot vot he had 
sell him, and hefints no ground at all / no ting he finds hut 
vataireP He accordingly asked for the return of his pur- 
chase-money, but was coolly told that the bargain could not 
be reversed, and that he must keep the lot. "Den," says 
the excited Frenchman, " I ask you to be so goot as to take 
de East Eibber off de top of it." The man again declined, 
whereupon the Frenchman threatened to go and drown him- 
self there in order to enjoy his land, and was as coolly 
told that he might thus employ his water privilege. The 
poor Frenchman's land is still submerged. 



CLASSES OF RICH MEN. 



The harvest of this world is gathered by a great variety of 
1 capers ; some are good, some bad. Riches are not always 



136 NEW YORK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS. 

given to " men of understanding, nor favor to men of skill,, 
but time and chance happen to them all." New York has 
many varieties of rich men. Some are misers wearing the 
garb of the pauper ; some are dishonest bankrupts clad in the 
garments of others ; some purchase estates with money 
wrung from the filth and wreck of humanity, while others 
are the Lord's noblemen, gathering industriously that they 
may disperse bountifully. We can only notice a few of the 
more prominent classes of rich men. We begin with the 

Politicians. — Years ago it was difiicult finding men who- 
were willing to accept the nominations for ofiice in New 
York, but times have greatly changed. Large sums are now 
exacted and given for positions. New York, however, con- 
tains more vitality than its corrupt political record would 
indicate. Thousands of amiable men do business here daily,. 
and form a large part of the strength of the city, but as 
they reside outside of the county lines, are entirely counted 
out on election days. The press of business keeps many vir- 
tuous men from the polls ; many true men are discouraged, 
and think it folly to contend with these floods of corruption ; 
and others, deploring the expensive misrule of the times, quiet 
themselves with the assurance that their own firm is sound, 
and their income satisfactory. A company of unscrupulous 
politicians, composed mostly of Democratic Komanists, have 
long ruled the elections and governed the city. Money to 
any amount needed to carry an election is always ready, and 
thousands of thieves, tipplers, foreigners, and loafers are 
always in the market to carry out, for a morsel of bread or a 
glass of bourbon, any behest. But politicians who give their 
fortunes for their elections, sell their administration to recover 
their money. Office in New York in these days does not 
signify eminence, or fitness, or honor, but MONEY. Money 
in some form brings men to office, and office here almost 
invariably brings men to money. Nearly all the political 
sachems of Manhattan have amassed fortunes from the cor- 
poration. One of its leaders at this writing, reputed to be 



CLASSES OF KICII MEN 



137 



M'ortli eight or ten millions, was a few years since a chair- 
maker, and abandoned his business with very meagre capital 
for the political arena. It is folly for one to ask a modest 
favor of a New York official. He is the man to whom favors 
belong. His ears are closed to everything but golden peti- 
tions, and silvery requests. A few years of official favor 
furnish a Fifth avenue palace and a splendid turnout. 








YORK STOCK EXCHANGE. 

{Broad Street.) 



Speculatoes and Stock Gamblers. — It is but fair to state 
that New Tork society contains a larger number of unscru- 



138 KEW YOEK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS. 

pulous and daring speculators than any other American city. 
The variety and magnitude of its business, and its connection 
with all the financial (;entres of the world, open a wide 
theater for every legitimate and illegitimate undertaking. 
Here hundreds and thousands of plotters and schemers con- 
gregate, and ply their arts with varying successes and re- 
verses. Men of no principle, and with no interest to serve save 
their own pockets, by artful inventions, gain the control of 
railroads, shipping-lines, stock-boards, and other moneyed 
interests, absorbing everything within their grasp, and paying- 
only such bills as their circumstances compel. A striking 
example of this is seen in the management of one of the lead- 
ing raih'oad interests of the State, its elections being manip- 
ulated in defiance of all law, under the direction of oflacers 
one of whom was a few years since an indigent surveyor, and 
another a retail pedler of dry goods. Many of these support 
magnificent style, and live in costly palaces on Fifth avenue 
during their prosperity. Nothing reliable can, however, be 
predicted of any of them ; they build upon the sand, and if 
rich to-day may be poor to-morrow, and are quite as likely to 
be executed as drowned, or to die in a prison as in a palace. 



SUCCESS OF GREAT JVEEN. 

Men are great in what they are, but this can only be 
known by what they do. During the last hundred years 
an army of men have come to the surface on Manhattan, 
whose directness, probity, indefatigable activity, and success 
have demonstrated their title to real greatness in their respec- 
tive spheres. Most of them began poor, were born in rural 
retreats, or in foreign lands, enjoyed very inadequate facil- 
ities of culture, and were unsupported by friends, or great 
names. More than one of them entered New York carry- 



SUCCESS OF GKEAT ISIEN. 13^ 

ing his entire effects in a pocket handkerchief. They are 
eminently deserving of all the credit the world is disposed 
to accord them. To their comprehensive genius we are 
indebted for the facilities of our world-wide commerce, the 
roar and rush of our long-drawn railroads, the speed and 
magnificence of our river, lake, and ocean steamers, the 
number and magnitude of our manufactories and printing- 
presses, the stability of our national finances, and the found- 
ing of many of our great educational, benevolent, and 
religious establishments. Many of them have been at times 
severely criticised, because of their relations to commerce, 
banks, railroad stocks, etc. ; and without attempting an 
apology for any of them, we only remark, that without 
their genius and money, their critics would have plodded the 
moors on foot, and died in profound ignorance of many of 
the comforts of this age. 

Some of these men have not been personally religious, 
though most of them have shown a deference for sacred 
things. Starting with a purpose to win by diligence, fru- 
gality, and integrity, they have unflinchingly held to first 
principles, and demonstrated that honesty is beyond all ques- 
tion the best policy. One of the first representatives of this 
class among New York merchants is Alexander T. Stewart. 
Born in a humble home in Ireland, he early immigrated to 
Xew York, and at length opened a small store on Broadway^ 
near Chambers street, doing all his own work, and toiling six- 
teen hours per day. His wife lived in a single room over the 
store, doing all her own work. Forced to raise money to 
meet his engagements or speedily become a bankrupt, to 
which he would not consent, he filled the neighborhood with 
handbills offering his goods at cost. His stock was soon sold, 
and as its quality was unsm-passed, his reputation was estab- 
lished. His noble resolve to sacrifice his goods and pay his 
debts was the key to his later success and world-wide fame. 
At the age of eighty years, and among the largest and richest 
merchants of the world, he attends to the minutest matters 



140 NEW YOKK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS. 

oi his business, never leaving the store at night until the last 
stroke of the pen is made, and everything adjusted. 

Among the steamboat and railroad men of Manhattan, we 
could scarcely select a litter representative than Cornelius 
Vanderbilt. A penniless youth, he began his marvelous 
career by paddling his own canoe between Staten Island and 
New York, from which he soon rose to the captaincy of a 
North-river steamboat. Some years later he commenced 
running opposition with half the old lines of travel leading 
to New York, at first with chartered, but finally with pur- 
chased and well-constructed boats. From steamboat lines he 
advanced to the control of railroads, and is likely to die 
the acknowledged railroad king of the western continent. 
Whatever may be said of his bargains, his business has 
throughout been conducted on the cash system, paying every 
man the precise sum promised without any delay. He is 
now over eighty years of age, and lives in a plain brick 
dwelling with his second wife, to whom he was recently 
married. 

Another class of successful New Yorkers began life reli- 
giously, or became so quite early in their business career. 
While these have been quite as active and powerful in 
extending commerce, building railroads, and developing the 
city, as those above mentioned, they have also formed the 
pillars in the churches, and have sent out their money in 
waves of blessedness to gladden the desolate plains of the 
whole world, 

John Jacob Astor was an elder in the Lutheran church, 
and gave freely to many charitable enterprises. He was the 
wealthiest man in America at his death. His son, William 
B. Astor, is not only one of the richest, but one of the safest 
business men in New York, investing his enormous income 
almost wholly in real estate. With twice the wealth of his 
father, he has less than half his liberality. He is, however, 
an honest man, and an honorable landlord. His income-tax 
during 1870 exceeded that paid by the whole State of Ver- 



SUCCESS OF GREAT MEN. 141 

mont. Among the wealthy iron merchants of Xew York, no 
man has run a more useful and brilliant career than William 
W. Cornell. Beginning life in the city a penniless boy at 
the anvil, he not only consecrated to God his heart, but 
his money, giving half of the iu-st hundred dollars he was 
allowed to call his own to the missionary cause. Possess- 
ing a vigorous and well-balanced mind, he early rose 
from obscurity, making his business a power which brought 
him in contact with the leading men of the metropolis. 
While pressing with marvellous capacity an immense busi- 
ness, he found time for wide religious labors, identifying his 
name and money with every struggling enterprise of his 
denomination, and fell in middle life, ripe in every good 
work, and universally lamented by all who knew him. Of 
Daniel Drew, William E. Dodge, James Lennox, Andrew Y. 
Stout, Eobert L. Stewart, H. J. Baker, William A. Booth, A. 
E. Wetmore, and many others, we cannot particularly speak. 
They not only rank among the most successful men in busi- 
ness, but are among the most honored and generous in 
their respective denominations. May they long live and 
prosper, reaping many a golden harvest for Christ and 
humanity, demonstrating that integrity, benevolence, and 
genuine piety may have their finest development in the 
rush and whirl of the metropolis. We conclude this chapter 
by adding that while it is true that the chances of failure 
are more numerous, and the trials of principle more severe 
than in a smaller town, the metropolis still affords to true, 
energetic, and well-balanced men the richest field for the 
development of all their noblest faculties, and for the accu- 
mulation of great wealth. But any young man hoping for 
great success in New York must expect to toil harder, live 
closer, and die earlier, after bearing through life an im- 
mensely greater stram, both of head and heart, than in any 
other portion of the American continent. 




VI. 
THE CHURCHES OF NEW YORK. 

REFORMED DUTCH PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL LUTHERAN PRESBYTE- 
RIAN — BAPTIST METHODIST JEWS ROMAN CATHOLIC OTHER 

DENOMINATIONS AND MISSIONARY SOCIETIES. 

fHE early religious history of Manhattan 
presents many interesting reminiscences, 
which for want of space we cannot minutely 
present. Intolerance and persecution we 
are, Iioweyer, sorry to say, existed, in those 
-=^— - good old days of " simplicity and sunshine.'^ 

The troublesome doctrine of uniformity long retarded the 
genuine religious development of the people. The first 
Quaker preacher landed in 1656, but finding it unsafe f(jr 
one of his faith and habits, departed unceremoniously. In 
1707 a Presbyterian clergyman was arrested and compelled 
to pay the cost of an expensive suit, for preaching in a pri- 
vate house, and baptizing a child. In 1709, a Baptist minis- 
ter was imprisoned three months for j^resuming to preach in 
the city without permission from the authorities. The Jews 
were long denied the privilege of worship, and a law was 
passed, though never enforced, for hanging every Catholic 
priest who should voluntarily enter the city. These preju- 
dices, however, early passed away. 



REFORIVIED DUTCH. 



The island being at first settled by the Hollanders, it was 
but natural that the Dutch church should long have the pre- 



KEFOKMED DUTCH 



143 



cedency. A church orgcanization was effected in 1G26, and 
there are regular records since 1639. In 1642, a stone church 




THE OLD DUTCH CiniRCH, FULTON STRF.ET, CORNER WILLIAM. 
(In which oriffinated and are now held the Fulton-street noon prayer-nieeting.^.') 

edifice was erected in the southeast corner of tlie fort at 
Bowling Green. The building was 70 by 52 feet, 16 feet 
high, and cost 2,500 guilders. It stood 99 years, and was 
then destroyed by fire. In 1693, the Garden street Dutch 



144 NEW YOKK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS. 

cliurcli was erected, and in 1729 the Middle Dutch church, 
used since 1844 as the New York Post Office. It was in this 
church that the zealous Dutch submitted after much excite- 
ment and discussion to the introduction of preaching in the 
English language, to save their young people, who were flock- 
ing to the English churches. The first sermon in English was 
preached by the Rev. Dr. Laidlie, on the afternoon of the last 
Sabbath in March, 1764, the innovation being such a novelty 
that the building and its windows were packed beyond all 
description. This occurred just one hundred years after the 
introduction of the English government and language. The 
North Dutch church was the next erected, on the corner of 
what is now William and Fulton streets. The land now 
valued at $300,000 was donated by John Ilarpending ; the 
corner-stone was laid July 2d, 1767, and the house dedicated 
May 25th, 1769. The structure is of stone, 100 feet long by 70 
wide, with a lofty steeple, and cost nearly twelve thousand 
pounds. It was in this venerable edifice that the far-famed 
Fulton-street daily prayer-meeting, characterized by unusual 
catholicity, fervent spontaneity, and the devout and pente- 
costal mingling of strangers, originated in September, 1857. 
Here it still continues. The Reformed Dutch have now 25 
churches and chapels on the island, many of which are large 
and well attended, but their paucity indicates that this excel- 
lent denomination, first on the soil, has not been very aggres- 
sive. 



PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL. 



On the surrender of Manhattan to the English in 1664, the 
haughty conquerors not only took possession of tue fort, but 
of the church also, and forthwith introduced the Episcopal 
service, changing the name of the building to King's Chapel. 



PEOTESTANT EPISCOPAL. 145 

The service of the church of England was conducted here 
until the dedication of the fii-st Trinity in February, 1697. 
Tins building, ^vhich stood on the site of the present Trinity, 
was a small, square edifice, and after being twice enlarged, 
was destroyed by the great conflagration of 1776. It was re- 
built in 1788, pulled down in 1840, and the present magnifi- 
cent structure completed and opened for worsliip, May 21st, 
1846. It is solid New Jersey brown-stone from foundation 
to spire, except the roof, which is wood. The edifice, which 
is in the Gothic order, is 192 feet long and 80 feet wide, the 
side walls rising fifty feet. The- spire stretches upward to 
the lofty altitude of 284 feet, up the winding stairs of which 
hundreds ascend daily 308 steps (250 feet) to the tower, 
where they obtain a magnificent view of the city, and its im- 
mediate surroundings. The chimes of Trinity are surpassed 
by few bells in the world. Trinity was endowed by Queen 
Anne, and came into possession of a large farm owned by a 
Dutch woman named Anneke Jans, which now covers a large 
portion of the city. Trinity is the mother of Episcopal 
churches in America. It is the richest religious corporation 
on tlie continent, its property, mostly in city real estate, being 
valued at forty or fifty millions. Many of the streets of New 
York bear the names of her rectors and vestrymen. 

The plan of a collegiate charge was early adopted by the 
Dutch and Episcopal churches of New York, and still con- 
tinues to a limited extent. St. Paul's, situated on Broadway, 
between Fulton and Vesey streets, a fine structure of reddish 
gray-stone, was opened for dedication October 30th, 1766. 
St. Johns, on Yarick street, was erected in 1807, at a cost of 
over two hundred thousand dollars, and St. George's was 
dedicated July 1st, 1752. All these were under the Trinity 
parish, though the last-named has since become a separate 
corporation. 

The Episcopalians of New York are a vigorous and benev- 
olent body, forming really the strength of the denomination 
in the country, supporting numerous benevolent institutions, 



146 NEW YORK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS. 

and paying anuually large sums to maintain feeble parishes, 
scattered over the interior of the State. Their churches and 
chapels (94 in all) outnumber those of any other denomina- 
tion on the island. They have been exceedingly happy in 
selecting names for their churches ; besides the churches of 
the Holy Apostles, Holy Innocents, Holy Communion, Holy 
Martyrs, and Holy Trinity, we read of the church of St. Al- 
ban's, St. Ambrose, St. Andrew's, St. Ann's, St. Clement, St. 
John's, St. Luke's, St. Mark's, St. Paul's, St. Peters, St. 
Philip's, St. Stephen's, St. Mary's, etc., etc., until one feels 
that New Tork is a sainted community, notwithstanding the 
number of sinners reported to still lurk around its corners. 



LUTHERAN. 



The Lutherans, akin to the Reformed Dutch, were the 
third to establish a separate service. Indeed it appears to 
have been established before the English conquest, though no 
church edifice was erected until 1702, when a small stone 
building was reared on the corner of Rector street and Broad- 
way, which was also destroyed by the fire of September, 1776. 

In 1767, they erected a substantial stone edifice on the 
corner of Frankfort and "William streets, known as the 
"Swamp church," and others in different parts of the city, 
have been since added as the wants of the denomination have 
required. There are now about fifteen Lutheran chm'ches 
on the island, several of which have large and wealthy con- 
gregations. ^%'' ■ 



~^^^!:-: 
^~^.--" 




Trinitt CHrRCH— Broadway opposite, Wall Street ; 80 x 192 feet , 284 feet high. 



PEE8BTTEEIAN. 147 



PRESBYTEEIAN. 



The Presbyterians, whose activity and strength are at this 
time second to no Protestant body in New York, were long 
and bitterly opposed in establishing their system of worship. 
They met in private houses for a considerable period, and in 
1716 organized their first society, connecting it with the 
Presbytery of Philadelphia. Having gained recognition 
from the authorities, they were allowed to worship in the City 
Hall until 1719, when they opened their first edifice in Wall 
street near Broadway. This first building was enlarged in 
1748, rebuilt on an enlarged scale in 1810, destroyed by fire 
in 1834, and again rebuilt and occupied until 1844, when it 
was sold and taken down ; the congregation erecting what 
has since been known as the First Presbyterian church, 
corner of Broadway and Eleventh street. Their second edi- 
fice, the " Brick church," on the corner of Beekman and 
Nassau streets, was dedicated January 1, 1768, and stood at 
that time in the open field. The next was the Rutgers-street 
church, opened for worship May 13, 1798, which was fol- 
lowed by the Duane, established in 1808, and the church 
of University place in 1845. Many of their churches are 
now located in the richest parts of the city, with large Sun- 
day schools and intelligent congregations. It is doubtful 
whether two more wealthy or liberal congregations can be 
found on this continent than that of the First Presbyterian 
church. Dr. Paxton, pastor, which last year contributed to 
benevolent enterprises over one hundred and sixty thousand 
dollars, and the Fifth avenue Presbyterian church, Dr. John 
Hall, pastor, which contributed over one hundred and eigh- 
teen thousand dollars. Of these sums nearly a quarter of a 
million went to outside charities. A collection of $20,000 
is no unusual thing for a Sabbath morning. Many of these 
churches establish and support missions in less favored local- 
ities. The churches and mission chapels of the Presbyteriar^e 



148 NEW YOKK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS. 

proper number seventy, those of the United Presbyterians 
eight, of the Reformed Presbyterians seven, and of the Con- 
gregationalists nine. Several magnificent institutions, which 
are elsewhere described in this work, have recently been 
projected by this denomination. 



BAPTIST. 

The first Baptists on Manhattan were of the Arminian faith. 
They began their toil amid violent persecution, and immersed 
some of their converts at midnight, to avoid difiiculty. Their 
first house of woi-ship, the Ai-minian Baptist church, stood on 
Golden Hill, afterwards Gold street, and was erected about 
1725. The history of the Baptist church in New York pre- 
sents some remarkable congregational feuds, and whether 
these have retarded or developed the growth of the denomina- 
tion we shall not attempt to decide. As neither faction have 
understood the principle of sm-render, nearly every serious 
dissension has either resulted in the extinction of a church, or 
in the founding of one or two new ones. In 1770 a diffi- 
culty arose in the First church, during the pastorate of Rev. 
John Gano, respecting psalmody. Most of the congregation 
preferred to abolish the old custom of parcelling out the lines 
in singing, whereupon a number of members withdrew and 
established the Second Baptist church. The Second church 
gained accessions after the Revolution, when another strife 
arose, about equally dividing the membership, each party 
claiming to be the Second Baptist church, and virtually ex- 
communicating each other. Through the mediation of friends 
in 1791, the disputed title was dropped,; one section became 
known as the Bethel church, and the other the Baptist church 
ill Fayette street. Thus one church literally, though un- 
happily, developed into three in twenty-one years. In 1802 




:a£^ 



The First Baptist Church— Cor. 3'Jth Street and Park Avenue. 
Erected 1871 ; size 66 x 100 feet ; cost, including lots, $250,000 ; seating capacity, 1,000. 




St. Paul's Methodist Cuukch— Corner Ith Avenue and i-Zd Street- 



METHODIST. 149 

John Inglesby, a member of the Fayette street church, was 
licensed to preach, and the next year began to hold regular 
6er\aces in a hall in Greenwich street, which resulted at length 
in the First Ebenezer Baptist church. Inglesby's course was 
not approved by the Fayette-street society. His preaching 
savored of Antinomianism, and his society was refused ad- 
mission into the Association. The Ebenezer church of our 
day was organized in 1825, and after several removals is now 
located in West Thirty-sixth street. The Welsh Baptist 
church was founded in 1807, the Mulberry street, the Abyssi- 
nian, and the North Beriah in 1809, the Zoar church in 1811, 
the South Baptist in 1822, the Cannon street in 1827, the 
North Baptist in 1828, the Salem in 1834, the West church in 
1835, the Berean in 1838, the Sixth street in 1840, and the 
Bloomingdale in 1843. The Old and the New school, the 
Colored, the German, the Welsh, and the Free-will Baptists, 
united, have about fifty places of worship in New York at 
this time, and rank among the most zealous and useful of our 
city churches. 



METHODIST. 



Methodism having become a power in Great Britain, drifted 
across the ocean, and, in 1766, sprang up in the New World. 
The first Methodist service was conducted by Philip Embury, 
an Irish Wesleyan local preacher, in his own house in Barrack 
street, now Park Place, to a congregation of six persons. A 
class was soon formed, and the place becoming too small for 
the congregation, a more eligible room was secured in the 
neighborhood; where the little society unexpectedly sprang 
into public notice by the advent of Captain Thomas Webb of 
the English army, then stationed at Albany. Webb had 
served with distinction under Braddock and Wolfe, was a 
spiritual son of John Wesley, a man of sense and fervid elo- 



150 NEW YORK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS. 

quence, and as he preached in full uniform, laying his sword 
on the desk, he attracted great attention. The Rigging Loft 
on Horse and Cart street, now William, between Fulton and 
John streets, until the opening of the first John-street church, 
October 30, 1768, was their temporary chapel, where many 
conversions occurred. The John-street church was rebuilt on 
the original site in 1817, and again in 1840, and is likely to 
long remain the monumental cradle of American Methodism. 
The Forsyth street church was founded in 1790, the Duane 
in 1797, the Allen street and the Bedford in 1810, the Willet 
street in 1817, the Eighteenth street in 1829, the Green street 
in 1831, and the Mulberry (now the St. Paul's) in 1834. The 
Methodist Episcopal Church has now sixty churches and cha- 
pels on the island, valued at over two million dollars, many of 
which are large and beautiful structures. St. Paul's, at the cor- 
ner of Fourth avenue and Twenty-second street, is perhaps the 
finest edifice yet reared by the denomination on Manhattan. 
The building is of white marble in the Romanesque order, its 
length being (including chapel) 146 feet, and the width 75 
feet. The height of the nave is 45 feet, and the top of the 
spire 210 feet. The audience room contains comfortable seat- 
ing for over thirteen hundred persons. The members of the 
Methodist church in ISTew York, who number about thirteen 
thousand, retain much of the fervor and simplicity of the by- 
gone period, while in liberality they probably far excel their 
forefathers. Besides the churches mentioned above there are 
about a dozen others, scattered over the island under various 
Methodist titles, and offshoots from the parent body. 



JEWS. 



Some families of Jews are said to have been among the 
early settlers of Manhattan, but at what time they first estab- 
lished their worship is not certainly known. . It is probable 



151 



that about 1706 they erected their first synagogue on Mill 
street, which was twice rebuilt and constituted their only place 




— ; r % 











JEWISH TEMPLE. 

(Fifth avenue, corner Forty-third street.) 

of worship for over one hundred years. During the last forty 
years their numbers have greatly increased, and the twenty- 
seven well-ordered synagogues of our day attest their steady 
adherence to the faith of their fathers. Many of their sjtlsl- 
gogues are situated in rich and eligible localities, and the 
one recently erected on the corner of Forty -third street and 
Fifth avenue is one of the largest and richest structures ')» 
the island. 



152 



NEW YOKK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS. 



ROMAN CATHOLIO. 

The first Eoman Catholic families entered Xew York dur- 
ing the admbiistration of Governor Thomas Dongan, but 




CATHOLIC CATHEDRAL. 

{_Fifth avenue, hetioeen Fifty-ftrst and Fifty-second streets.) 

they were not allowed to establish their system of worship un- 
til after the Revolution. They fii-st worshipped in a public 



ROMAN CATHOLIC. 153 

building iu Vauxhall garden, situated on the Hudson river 
between Warren and Chambers streets. Their fii-st church 
edifice was on the site of the present St. Peters church in Bar- 
clay street, mass being fii'st performed within its walls Novem- 
ber 4, 1786. No other Catholic church was erected for more 
than thirty years. St. Peter's w^as rebuilt of granite on a greatly 
enlarged scale in 1836, and still remains a substantial monu- 
ment of the denomination. Its front is ornamented with six 
massive Ionic columns, and a monument of St. Peter with the 
keys. In 1815 they erected '' St. Patrick's cathedral," on the 
corner of Mott and Prince streets, and in 1826 they purchased 
of the Presbyterians a small edifice on Sheriff street, between 
Broome and Delancey. About the same time they purchased 
a church edifice from the Episcopalians in Ann street near 
Nassau, which was destroyed by fire in 1834, when the society 
divided, one section buildingthe " St. James' church "on James 
street, the other purchasing a building of the Presbyterians 
on Chambers street, which they named the " Church of the 
Transfiguration." In 1833 they erected " St. Joseph's church " 
in Barrow street; in 1840 they purchased the Universalist 
church in Duane street, and in 1841 they purchased the " Se- 
cond avenue Presbyterian church." The Catholics have pur- 
chased nearly every church offered for sale in the city for 
many years past, their communicants being composed largely 
of the laboring classes, and occupying sections where Protes- 
tant churches have found it difiicult to sustain themselves. 
This sect has wonderfully increased on Manhattan during the 
last fifty years, not to any considerable extent from the con- 
vei-sion of Americans, but from the very extensive immigra- 
tion of foreigners to this country, many of whom linger in 
the cities. They have now forty churches on the island, most 
of which are large, and their services are usually crowded 
without any regard to time, season, or weather. 

The late Ai-chbishop Hughes projected the largest and 
richest enterprise in church architecture ever undertaken in 
New York. He laid the corner-stone of the immense " St. 



154 NEW TOKK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS. 

Patrick's Cathedral," on Fifth avenue, between Fifty-first and 
Fifty-second streets in 1858, since which the work of construc- 
tion has slowly progressed. The extreme length of the structure 
is 332 feet with a general breadth of 132, and at the transept 
of 174 feet. The foundation is of Maine granite and the side 
walls of Westchester marble. The style of the building is 
decorated Gothic, with two lofty spires, and when completed 
is expected to be the finest architectural monument of its kind 
on the continent. 

The labors and sacrifices of the Catholics for the advance- 
ment of their church interests are proverbial. Theii' exces- 
sive liberality amounts to almost a crime (1 Tim, v. 8), giv- 
ing so extensively that when overtaken by sickness or misfor- 
tune vast numbers of them fall at once a burden upon the 
city charities. Being also a unit in politics they have found 
ways and means unknown to the Protestant denominations. 



OTHER DENOMINATIONS AND IHSSIONARY SOCIETIES. 

The " Church of the Strangers " originated with the pres- 
ent pastor, Eev. Chas. F. Deems, D.D. of the M. E. Church 
South, who preached the first sermon in the small chapel of 
the University, on the twenty-second day of July. 1866, to 
fifteen persons. Service was held weekly until the chapel 
was filled, and in May, 1,867, the congregation removed to 
the large chapel of the University and organized a Sabbath 
school. Temporary organizations to conduct the business 
were formed, and on Jan. 5, 1868, a church organization was 
effected and twenty-two communicants enrolled. The mem- 
bership now numbers two hundred. Members are required 
to subscribe to the Apostles' Creed and profess an earnest 
" desire to flee from the wrath to come and be saved from 
their sins." In October, 1870, the congregation removed to 



OTHEK DENOMINATIONS AND MISSIONARY SOCIETIES. 



155 



the old Mercer-street Presbyterian church, wliicli had been 
purchased and generously presented to the society by Corne- 




i^^^^ 



■j^^*. ^^f 

*^K 




THE CHURCH OF THE '^TP ANGERS 



lius Yanderbilt, Esq. The temporal affairs are conducted by 
the Mont}dy Meeting^ composed of all communicants and 
subscribers. The seats are free, and all members and resi- 
dent attendants are expected to subscribe a weekly amount. 
Annual expense of church, $10,000 

The Moravians were first org-anized in New York in 1748, 



156 NEW YORK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS. 

and liave at this time two churches. The Universalists be- 
gan in 1796, and have at present three churches and four 
missions. The Unitarians organized in 1S19, their first ser- 
mon being preached by Dr. Channing, of Boston ; they have 
at this writing five congregations. The Friends opened their 
first Meeting House in 1703, and have now five congrega- 
tions on Manhattan, The members of the Greek church liave 
just opened a temporary chapel, and are soon to erect a church 
on Lexington avenue. The cliurches and chapels of the Pro- 
testant denominations now number four hundred and thirty, 
witli seating for nearly 400,000 persons. The church pro- 
perty exclusive of endowments amounts to at least $30,000,000. 
About one and a half million dollars are annually required 
to support the Protestant churches, and these contribute, be- 
side their current expenses, five millions to other charities. 

The J^ew York City Mission and Tract Society was organ- 
ized nearly fifty years ago. In 1835 it employed twelve gen- 
eral missionary laborers and the number has been steadily in- 
creased until it now exceeds forty. The missionaries have 
not, until recently, attempted to form societies. There are 
three missionary societies operating in the City, under the di- 
rection of the Protestant Episcopal church, and one con- 
nected with the Reformed Dutch church. There has been 
also for many years a city missionary society connected with 
the Methodist Episcopal church, which was reorganized and in- 
corporated in April, 1866. Under the presidency of the late 
AY. "W. Cornell, Esq., whose munificence and unaffected piety 
have rarely if ever been excelled, this organization became 
the most vigorous for city evangelization of any in the me- 
tropolis. During the last four years three of its missions have 
developed into self-supporting churches, with good houses of 
worship ; a number of fine chapels ha\e been erected, and 
nearly twenty new societies organized. There are over 260 
city missionaries at work in New York under the direction of 
the Protestant churches, beside scores of agents and visitors of 
the numerous l)enevolent societies. These missionaries make 



OTHER DENOMDfATIONS AKD MISSIONARY SOCIETIES. 157 

about 800,000 visits per annum ; they carry gladness and sun- 
shine into many caverns of darkness and poverty, dissemin- 
ate religions knowledge, relieve the suffering, and gather the 
wayward into the sanctuaries. Though much is said and 
written about the neglect of the masses in large cities, it is 
nevertheless certain to those who are in circumstances to 
know, that few sections of Christendom are more thoroughly 
canvassed by the pious than the lanes and streets of Manhat- 
tan. 



VII. 
PARKS AND SQUARES. 




There are eighteen public and several private parks and 
squares on Manhattan, covering in all over a thousand acres 
or one-fourteenth of the entire island. Many of the early 
parks have either disappeared or been greatly changed during 
the last few years. The Battery, which now contains twelve 
acres, was originally somewhat smaller, and was early pro- 
fusely set with Lombardy poplar trees, all of which have now 
disappeared. This park, affording a line view of the bay, 
and fanned with the cool breezes from the ocean, was for 
many years the most popular resort of the city for all classes. 

It is being again improved with walks and trees, after be- 
ing long neglected. Bowling Green, so named because the 



PARKS AKD SQUARES. 159 

favorite bowling place of the military officers of King George, 
is a small oval enclosure at L.)wer Broadway. It was fenced 
with iron before the Revolution, and the heads of the posts 
were broken uff and used as cannon balls during the war. 
The City Hall Park contains ten acres. Many great and 
beautiful trees in this were cut down after the erection of the 
Marble Hall, to enable the populace from all quarters to get 
a view of the edifice. St. John's Park, which contained four 
acres, is said to have once presented, besides its beautiful 
fountain and beds of rare flowers, a greater variety of trees 
and shrubbery than any other spot of its size in the world. 
It is now covered with the Hudson Eiver R. R. freight de- 
pot, ornamented with the costly bronze statue of the present 
railroad king, who has just demolished a fine church, and 
many other costly structures in another part of the city, to 
make place for the erection of another immense depot, the 
largest on the continent. Stuyvesaut square contains four 
acres, and was presented to the city by the late Peter G. 
Stuyvesant. 

Tompkins square contains ten acres, and is much used as 
a place of military parade. It contains few ornaments. 
Washington square was formerly the Potter's Field, and was 
thus used dm-ing the Yellow Fever periods of 1797-1T9S, 
lSOl-1803. It contained until recently nine and a half 
acres, and is believed to have received the bodies of 125,000 
strangers. The recent extension of Fifth avenue has some- 
what marred this beautiful park, by forcing a wide street 
through its center. 

Union and Madison are very attractive centers, surrounded 
with high iron enclosures, containing beautiful fountains 
eeats for visitors, and a fine growth of young trees. 

Murray Hill Park, adjoining the distributing reservoir, is 
being much improved, though the absence of shade has hith- 
erto prevented it from being a place of general resort for the 
neighborhi^od. New parks are being formed on the upper 
parts of the island, among which we mention Observatory 



160 



NEW YORK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS. 



Place, containing 26 acres ; Manhattan square, containing I'J 
acres ; and Mount Morris, containing 20 acres. 

Central Park, the largest of all, was laid out in 1857; is 
two and a half miles long, three-fifths of a mile wide, con- 
tains 843 acres, and is twice as large as the renowned Hyde 








CENTItAL TAilK PLAYGROUND. 



Park of London. It has cost in the purchase of land, and its 
improvements, over $1 1,000,000 ; and is now maintained and 
steadily improved, at an annual expense of $250,000. It 
has twelve grand entrances, contains five and a half miles of 
bridle path, nine and a half of carriage roads, twenty-seven 
miles of walks, so admirably arranged with arched passage- 
ways, that the pedestrian is never obliged to step on the car- 
riage or bridle ways. Near the south-east corner stands a 
large three-story stone building, formerly a State arsenal. 
This has been pui-chased by the Park Commissioners, and 
was, until recently, filled with animals and serpents, witli 



PARKS AND SQUARES 



161 



many ancient and modern cnriosities. It has recently l)een 
rejuvenated, and adapted to the convenience of a Society lately 
incorporated, and known as the " American Museum of Nat- 
ural History." This society has in a short time collected an 




astonishing number of stuffed and mounted birds, serpents, 
mammals, fishes, insects, and other curious skeletons, valued 
at more than $100,000 ; and rendering their Museum one of 
the most attractive centres for the naturalist, the antiquarian, 
or the curious, on the entire island. The building contains 
three stories, and the collection is so arranged for exhibition, 
that the visitor is enabled to contemplate by progressive 
stages the various i)liases of animal life from its lowest to its 
highest developments. On the fii'st 'floor he finds sponges 
from the East Indies, dome-shaped corals, and specimens of 



162 NEW YOEK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS. 

the lowest known orders of animal existence. He next finds 
hundreds of specimens of fishes, including the dolphin, blad- 
der fish, etc. Reptiles follow, with a fine exhibit of the boa 
constrictor. Cases are devoted to conchology, exhibiting the 
principal mollusca found in the different parts of the world. 
10,000 specimens of Lepidoptera, presented by C. T. Robin- 
son, exhibit all known varieties of American and European 
moths and butterflies. 4,000 varieties of beetles and other 
insects have been presented bv Baron Osten-Sackeu. Birds 
from all countries, exhibiting nearly every variety of size, 
habit, and plumage, from the humming-bird to the eagle, are 
interestingly grouped. The collection of mammals exhibits 
the kangaroo, fox, tiger, wild boar, ibex, leopard, lion, camel, 
stag ; all crowned on the upper floor with a large variety of 
monkeys, which form the climax of the lower tribes, and ap- 
proach nearest to man. The entire collection of the late 
Prince Maximilian, comprising 7,000 specimens, and various 
large and small collections, have been here classified for the 
study of the people. The first reception was given by the 
managers of the Museum on the 27th of April, 1871, to a 
thousand delighted visitors. A large and eligible structure 
is soon to be erected on Manhattan square for this Museum 
of natural history ; also appropriate accommodations for the 
Metropolitan Museum of Art. The Department of Public 
"Works has been empowered to proceed with the arrangement 
of these structures, at an expense not exceeding $500,000 for 
each. The trustees of the Museum of Natural History de- 
sign it to equal, if not surpass, any similar institution in the 
world. 

Around the arsenal are buildings and cages with bears, 
eagles, serpents, and numerous other varieties of animals. 
The collection of rare living animals, repiiles, and birds is 
very large, numbering in all about six hundred, or over one 
hundred and thirty varieties. 

On the northern extremity of the Park, stands what was 
originally St. Vincent's Convent. The chapel of this has 



PAEKS AND SQ CARES. 163 

been remodeled and decorated, and now contains the statuary, 
one of the m<:)5t attractive collections in the country. A little 
north-east of this building are the nursery grounds, coverinu' 
two and a half acres, where choice trees and shrubs are grown. 
Contiguous thereto is a vegetable garden, containing speci- 
mens of most of the esculents that will thrive in this climate, 
properly arranged, and the name of each so conspicuously 
placed, that a person passing by can readily recognize it. A 
spacious greenhouse, with approved heating apparatus, has re- 
cently been added, to preserve the tropical collection which 
has recently been greatly increased, 3.53 valuable plants being- 
donated at one time by James Lenox, Esq., and 71 by Dr. 
Wood. 

A large zoological garden is being constructed, with un- 
derground accommodations for bears, seals, the walrus, bea- 
ver, etc. 

The best meteorological observatory in the country has been 
established, and a fine astronomical observatory is soon to be 
completed. 

A Palaeozoic Museum, containing life-size representations 
of most of the animals believed to have existed in America, 
during the secondary and post-tertiary geological periods, is 
being prepared. This will certainly be a cabinet of great 
interest. 

A line of stages now carry visitors throuo-h the Park, halt- 
ing at its chief places of attraction. No pains or expense are 
spared to make the Park all the most fastidious could desire. 
A bronze figure for a fountain has just been cast in Munich 
for the Commissioners, and the basin for the same is a block 
of polished "Westerly granite, seventeen feet square. Several 
costly and ornamental structures for the sale of pictures, re- 
freshments, and mineral waters, have recently been erected. 

The site of this Park was originally perhaps the most bro- 
ken of the island, and considered by many irredeemable ; 
yet the toil of thousands of men, aided by powerful machin- 
ery, has crushed the rocks, so graded and enriched the sur- 



164: 



NEW YORK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS. 



face, as to have made the "desert blossom as the rose." 
Yerdant lawns spread away, where only rocks and poisonous 
laurel once appeared. Trees from all countries wave in the 
breeze and the broken places still remaining are so artfully 




CENTRAL PARK CASCADE. 

concealed with dense rows of choice shrubbery, that the de- 
lighted visitor rarely discovers them. Appropriate space is 
laid out for ball play and military parade. Placid lakes cov- 
ering forty-three acres, dotted in summer with pleasure boats 
and snow-white swan, are no less attractive to skating par- 
ties in winter. The Commissioners offered $-4,000 for the 
best plan for laying out this plot of ground, and thirty-live 
studies were presented, some of which came from Europe. 
Mr. F. L. Olmsted and Mr. C. Vaux proved the successful 
competitors. The millions already invested in this undertak- 
ing have by no means completed the improvements of this 
imperial park. Thus far they have made wonderful pro- 
gress. The portion completed is so finely ornamented with 



ARKS AND SQUARES. 



165 



fountains, terraces, stairways, arcades, sculpture, statuary, 
rustic arbors, and pavilions, that one wearies with the re- 
peated yet ever-diversified exhibitions of genius, beauty, and 
taste. It is the favorite resort of all classes, and is visited by 
about ten millions annually. 




CENTRAL PARK MINERAL SPRLNGS. 



A stranger, spending a day in Xew York, should pass 
through Broadway, Washington market, ascend Trinity stee- 
ple, and visit Central Park. In the first, while he thinks of 
" Vanity fair," his attention will 1)6 perpetually attracted to 
objects of unrivaled and substantial costliness ; and at the mar- 
ket will behold such an accumulation of commodities, and 
commingling of nationalities, as none can well describe. From 
Trinity steeple, two hundred and fifty feet above the pavement, 
he obtains a bird's-eye view of neighboring cities, of the broad 
rivers and bay whose waters are whitened with ten thousand 
sails ; he hears the distant roar of innumerable wheels, and 
looks dowm upon the masses of diminutive creatures that are 
ceaselessly surging l3elow. At the Park evei-ything is charm- 
ing, nature on parade in her gayest and sweetest attire. 




VIII. 
HOW NEW YORK J 8 HUrrLIED WITH WATER. 

EFORE the introduction of the Croton, the 
inhabitants of Manhattan suffered perpet- 
ual perils fi-om fires, drought, and the im- 
purities of their daily beverage. 

A liberal supply of pure water is one of 
the first conditions of health and happiness, 
rith any people ; but how to thus supply a vast 
ity has been a question that has agitated the 
5(_)lonions, the Cresars, and the Montezumas. 
many years the inhabitants of Manhattan de- 
})ended upon public and private wells. In 1659, there were 
ele\en public wells in the little city — two in Wall street, three 
in Broadway, four in Broad street, and two on the East river 
side. These were used for watering horses and extinguish- 
ing fires, the families mainly depending upon private wells in 
their own yards. As the city enlarged, the demand for 
water increased ; various schemes were discussed and experi- 
ments vainly tried, during half a century, until a board of 
Commissioners finally took the matter resolutely in hand, and 
after eight years of study and toil, completed in 1S42 the 
most extensive and magnificent enterprise of the kind in 
modern times. A dam thrown across Croton river raised the 
water forty feet, forming Croton lake. The aqueduct proper 
is c<;)nstructed of stone, brick, and cement, arched above and 
below, is seven and a half feet wide, and eight and a half 
high, with an inclination of thirteen inches to the mile ; the 
fiow of water for some years was about twenty-seven million 
gallons daily, bat at present reaches nearly sixty millions, its 
full capacity. In Westchester county it crosses twenty-five 




liiliiiil 



HO"\V NEW YORK IS SUPPLIED WITH WATEK. 107 

Streams, averaging from twelve to seventy feet below the line 
of grade, besides numerous brooks furnished with culverts. 
The water is carried across Harlem river in vast iron 
pipes on a bridge of granite, 1450 feet long, which is sup- 
ported by fifteen arches, the crown of the highest being 100 
feet above high-water mark, to prevent interference with 
navigation. Two deep valleys are ingeniously crossed, be- 
tween this river and the receiving reservoir opposite Eighty- 
sixth street, which covers thirty-five acres, and contains 
150,000,000 gallons. Several years since a retaining reser- 
voir was added, covering over 100 acres, and thirty-eight feet 
deep, capable of holding one billion and thirty million gal- 
ktns. Two large reservoirs have just been constructed — the 
'' Storage reservoir," and the " High Service " at Carmansville. 
From the receiving to the distrilniting reservoir, a distance 
of two and one-fourth miles, the water is conducted through 
several lines of iron pipe three or four feet in diameter. The 
distributing reservoir for the principal ])art of the city stands 
on Murray Hill, between Fortieth and Forty-second streets, 
fronting on Fifth avenue. It covers more than four acres, is 
divided into two parts, is 40 feet above the pavements, 115 
above tide-water, and holds twenty million gallons. The 
entire distance from Croton lake to Murray Hill is forty-one 
and a half miles. Three hundred and forty miles of main 
pipe have been laid, to carry the water through the city. 
The water has been introduced into 67,000 dwelling-houses 
and stores, into 1,624 manufactories, 307 churches, into 290 
buildings used as hospitals, prisons, schools, or public build- 
ings, and into 14 markets. Seventy-two drinking hydi-ants 
are now in use in the city. The Crotr.n water supplies Sing 
Sing prison, all tlie Institutions of Blackwell's, Randall's, and 
"Ward's Islands, forms the numerous artificial lakes and ponds 
in Central Park, the fountains in all the other parks, is used 
for sprinkling the streets, and extinguishing fires. Its origi- 
nal cost was about nine millions, but the continual expense of 
repairs, building of new reservoirs, and of pipes, have swelled 



1C8 NEW YOEK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS. 

the amount to nearly forty millions, a great but never-to-be- 
regretted expenditure. 

A water tax is imposed on every building supplied, which 
is graduated according to the size of the structure. A one- 
story of sixteen feet width is taxed $4, a tive-story with a 
width of twent3^-five feet, $12 per annum. In manufacto- 
ries, the Commissioners design to collect one cent for every 
one hundred gallons used, as nearly as may be. The water 
tax during 1S68 amounted to $1,232,404.95, and since its in- 
troduction in 1S42 to o\er $18,000,000. In :S'ovember, 1868, 
the water was shut oif for five days, for the inspection and re- 
pairing of the aqueduct. During the suspension of the flow 
of water, the reservoirs were reduced over nine feet, remind- 
ing us that if the supply should be cut off, our hydrants would 
fail in about fifteen days. The Croton ranks among the pur- 
est streams of the world. Its waters are collected in a 
district of 352 square miles. Mountains and hills of azoic 
gneiss receive the rainfall, which is filtered by the pure sili- 
cious sands and gravels, to gush out in numberless sjjrings and 
brooks, which flow in sparkling transparency to the lake, the 
great reservoir. Here the sediments are mainly deposited, 
before the aqueduct is reached. A stone wall has been 
thrown around the lake, to isolate the drainage from the sur- 
rounding farms. A careful analysis of the water shows that 
the amount of impurity during a whole summer amounted 
to but 4.45 grains per gallon, or 7.63 parts in 100,0<J0. 

Dublin is the only city in Europe supplied with water as 
pure as the Croton, and Boston, Philadelphia, and Trenton, 
only in America. Kine old wells were filled and covered in 
1S68, though two or three hundred still exist. Their waters are 
greatly polluted, and are fruitful sources of disease, the only 
remedy— filling them all — should be promptly attended to. 

By means of a new purchase of water-right in the spi-ing 
of 1870, the volume of water during the dry season has been 
much increased, and the city saved from any anxiety in re- 
lation to the supply of this indispensable element. 



IX. 



THE SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES OF NEW YORK. 




HEADQUARTERS OF NEW YORK B04RD OF EDUCATION 

( Corner Grand and Elm. ) 

The early Dutch settlers of Manhattan were educated in 
the first common schools known in Europe, and have the 
immortal honor of establishing the first on this continent, for 
the education of all classes of society, at the public expense. 



ITO NEW YOEK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS. 

Tlie Dutch government bound the company to support minis- 
ters and schoohnasters, and the company imposed the same 
obligation on the patroons, in their respective agricultural 
colonies. Here, as in the mother-country, the schools were 
under the direction of the established church ; the importance 
of a secular education for all, controlled by the state, and 
untrammelled by denominationalism, was not yet understood. 
The offices of minister and schoolmaster appear to have 
been united in one person, during the reign of Peter Minuits, 
the first governor, but were divided at the advent of his suc- 
cessor, in 1633. During the first forty years, the schools 
were held in such premises as could be obtained. An effort 
indeed appears to have been made to erect a school-house in 
16-12, but the funds raised for this purpose were again and 
again diverted for the common defence against the Indians, 
who roamed over nearly the whole island, so that no building 
for school purposes was probably erected until after the Eng- 
lish occupation. Peter Stuy vesant ex-idently took considera- 
ble interest in education, for at his surrender of the colony 
to the English, there were in ISTew Amsterdam, a town of 
fifteen hundred inhabitants, twelve or fifteen private, and 
three pul)lic schools, besides a Latin school established in 
1659, whose reputation had attracted students from various 
parts of the continent. "With the transfer of the government 
from the Dutch to the English, the public support of the 
schools (save to the Latin, which continued but a few years) 
was withdrawn. The sturdy Dutch, however, kept on the even 
tenor of their way for many years, both in church and school. 
The " School of the Eeformed Protestant Dutch Church," 
now conducted at No. 160 West Twenty -ninth street, dates 
back in its origin to the Dutch dynasty, and is probably the 
oldest educational institution in the country, its managers 
having, however, imbibed the enlightened sentiments of their 
cotemporaries. Early in the eighteenth century, Euglisli 
schools became somewhat common in New York, and on 
Long Island. In 1710, the school still existing and known as 



THE SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES OF NEW YORK. 171 

" Trinity School," was established by William Huddlestone, 
under the direction of a society connected with the English 
church, and in 1754, King's College (now Columbia) was es- 
tablished. The Dutch struggled long and zealously against 
the extinction of the language and customs of their country, 
and as late as 1755 imported a zealous Holland schoolmaster, 
who served them with great acceptability for eighteen years, 
but was mournfully compelled ere his death to introduce 
English studies in the school, and to listen to preaching in 
the English language in the church. The capture of Kew 
York by the British, in 1776, was the signal for closing the 
schools, which continued until the evacuation, seven years 
after. 

It was not until near the close of the last century that the 
public mind was aroused to the importance of providing the 
means for the general education of the people. From the 
establishment of the English government in 1664, down to 
1795, all efforts to educate the masses were made by individ- 
uals, or by local churches ; but in the year last named, in 
compliance with the recommendation of that enlightened 
governor, George Clinton, the New York Legislature passed 
an act, appropriating $50,000 a year for five years, for the 
maintenance of schools in the several cities and towns of the 
State, in which the children should be taught English gram- 
mar, arithmetic, mathematics, and such other branches of 
knowledge as are necessary to complete a good English 
education. In 1805, the State government set apart the net 
proceeds from the sale of 500,000 acres of vacant lands, for a 
]jermanent fund, for the support of common schools, to be 
securely invested until the interest thereof should amount to 
$50,000 per annum, which sum was to be annually divided 
between the several school districts, according to the number 
of their scholars. This fund was further increased by the 
proceeds of certain bank stocks and of the lotteries author- 
ized by the Act of 1803. The first distribution occurred in 
1815. A little previous to this movement in the Legislature, 



172 NEW YORK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS, 

oi'i^anizations began to spring up, both in Europe and Amer- 
ica, for the education of the poor and the neglected. The 
" Manumission Society," to improve the condition of the 
colored race, organized in 1785, was the first in our country, 
and two years later it established a school in Cliff street, and 
soon gathered one hundred pupils. This society continued 
its work for forty years, firmly established several schools, 
but in 1834, voluntarily surrendered its charge with consid- 
erable valuable school property to the State government. 
These are now the Colored Schools, under control of the 
Board of Education. A " Female Association for the Relief 
of the Poor," was organized, and in 1802 opened a school 
for white girls. This society existed about half a century, 
proved .the feasibility of such undertakings, and led to the 
organization of the " Free School Society," which afterwards 
became the "Public School Society of the City of New 
York." The " Lancaster system," viz, : that five hundred or 
a thousand children could be properly instructed by a single 
teacher, then very popular in England, was introduced into 
this city, and in due time failed. In 1827, a number of 
ladies organized the "" Infant School Society," and the next 
year the same was introduced into Boston, Charleston, and 
other places. The movement now looks to us supremely 
silly. Children were received into these schools in New 
York at from two to six years of age, and in. Boston, always 
in the advance, at from eighteen months to four years. The 
system of instruction adopted was the " Pestalozzian," and 
does not differ materially from the course pursued at present, 
by most infant-class teachers, in our Sunday schools. 

The " Free School Society," afterwards the " Public School 
Society," incorporated in 1805, managed by many of the 
wisest and purest men of the State, was for nearly half a 
century the great educational power of the city, if not of the 
country as well, and its managers deserve the lasting praise 
of posterity. Singularly wise in counsel, and economic in 
management, collecting vast sums among its friends, employ- 



THE SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES OF NEW YORK. lid 

ing millions from the public ti-easurv without ever inten- 
tionally squandering a dollar, it ran the most unselfish and 




KEW YORK FREE SCHOOL BUILDING, OPESEU IK 1809 IN TRYON ROW. 



brilliant career in the annals of popular education. Still, 
it came to be questioned whether the work of a whole com- 
munity should be surrendered to tlie few, and whether the 
State did wisely in committing the funds for the education 
of the children, and the erection of suitable buildings, into 
the hands of a private corporation, whose affairs might not 
always be managed by men as wise and good ; and after 
considerable agitation, in April, 184:2, the Legislature passed 
an act, by which the Board of Education, whose members 
were, until recently, elected by the people, was organized. 
During the next eleven years, the two organizations continued 
their independent operations, but the Public School Society, 
shorn of its former income from the State treasury, found 
its embarrassments continually multiplying, until it finally 
accepted a proposition from the Board of Education, to con- 
solidate the two interests, which was practically accomplished 



174 NEW YORK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS. 

in 1S53. The property transferred by this society to the 
Board of Education, though somewhat encumbered, amounted 
to $600,000, but the fruit of their toil, evinced in the intel- 
ligence and virtue of the generations they instructed, was 
their noblest monument. At the close of the first eighteen 
years of their operations, they asserted that of the 20,000 
poor children instructed in their schools, but one had been 
traced to a criminal court. Daring the forty-eight years of 
its continuance, it had under instruction no less than 600,000 
children, of whom over twelve hundred became trained teach- 
ers, and one acquainted with its workings declares, that of a 
class of thirty-two boys in 1S35, two have since been judges 
of the Supreme Court, one a member of the Legislature, one 
a City Register, several Principals and . Assistants in the 
schools, one an Assistant Superintendent, one a clergyman, 
and several distinguished merchants. A very remarkable 
record indeed ! 

The advantage of thus uniting these great educational 
interests, and of combining the wisdom and skill of those 
trained veterans, who had so thoroughly solved these prob- 
lems, appears in the present condition of the schools of our 
city, which in discipline and scholarship are second to no 
other in the world. The Board of Education consists of 
twelve Commissioners, who have the general supervision of 
the schools, the appropriation of the moneys set apart for 
their maintenance, the purchase of sites, and erection of new 
schools, the furnishing of supplies, books, stationery, fuel, 
and lights. There are also one hundred and ten Trustees, 
until recently elected by the people, five for each ward, one 
being chosen each year for a term of five years. There are 
also twenty-one Inspectors of schools, who were, until the 
present year, nominated by the Mayor, and confu-med by the 
Board of Education. The members of our last Legislature, 
madly intent on the one-man power, vested the entire school 
authority of the city in the Mayor. He is henceforth to 
appoint the Board of Education, the Inspectors, and all the 



THE SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES OF NEW YORK. 



175 



Trustees in the several wards, completely absolving the 
people from all responsibility in directing and regulating a 




(H'e-si EitjhUtiiLh >il. 



matter, more than any other, connected with the happiness 
and success of their children. 

There are now ninety school-buildings owned by the city, 
besides numerous hired ones, which cover more than twenty 
acres of ground, and the floors above the basements of the 
same, about seventy acres additional. The old buildings 
were plain as will be seen by the accompanying cut, but 
many of those recently erected cover several lots of ground, 
are lofty and elegant structures, with several fire-proof stair- 
ways, and all necessary apartments for the complete accom- 
modation of two thousand scholars. The second cut repre- 



lib NEW YORK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS. 

sents the new building in West Eighteenth street, and 
contrasts favorably with the one erected in 1809. 

There are now besides the thirty-six corporate schools of 
the several benevolent societies, and which are partly under 
the control of the Board of Education, sixty -three Grammar 
schools, which are divided into forty-six departments for 
male scholars, forty-four for female, and six for colored 
students. There are fifty-six Primary departments, fifteen 
evening schools for males, eleven for females, and three for 
colored children. There are two Normal Schools, and one 
High School. The Board of Education employs over twen- 
ty-four hundred teachers, over two thousand of whom are 
females. The number of scholars on register during 1869 
was 237,325, with an average attendance of about 103,000. 
The annual expense of the public schools amounts to about 
$3,000,000. The Board of Education appoints its President 
and Clerk, also the City Superintendent, and his assistants. 
The Superintendent grants two grades of certificates, to 
persons of suitable age, who have completed the course of 
study, after which they may be appointed to teach. The 
books and other requisites are purchased by the board in 
large quantities, stored at a central depot, and distributed to 
the several schools when needed. 

In 1866, the Free Academy was, by Act of Legislature, 
erected into the College of the City of New York, and be- 
came a separate corporation, the members of the board of 
Education being ex officio members of its board of trustees. 
Advanced students from the public schools are admitted with 
free scholarship, and the trustees are authorized to draw on 
the Board of Supervisors, who shall raise l)y general taxation 
a sum not exceeding $125,000 per annum, to defray the ex- 
penditures (jf the institution. Besides these general provi- 
sions for the benefit of advanced students, there are several 
Academies and Colleges belonging to the Roman Catholics, 
taught by Jesuits, and various orders of Brothers and Sisters. 
Columbia College, the oldest in the State, is situated on 



THE SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES OF NEW YORK. 



177 



Fourth avenue and Fiftieth street. It lias departments for 
law and mining, and a separate college for Physicians and 
Surgeons. It is under the control of the Protestant Episco- 
pal church, and has a property of several millions. The 
Kew York University, a large four-story Gothic structure of 
free-stone, at Washington square, was founded in 1S31, has 
the several departments, and has graduated many students. 
There are two extensive theological seminaries in the city. 




KUTGi-RS iEJIALE COLLEGE 

{Fifth avenue and Furti/-Jirst street.) 



The " Union Theological Seminary " (Presbyterian), founded 
in 1836, and open for students from all denominations who 
have graduated at a college. The trustees of this Seminary 
last year purchased four acres of ground on St. Nicholas 
avenue, between One Hundred and Thirtieth and One Hun- 
dred and Thirty-second streets, and are now erecting new 
and more commodious buildings, which it will require several 



ITS NEW YORK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS. 

years to complete, and will involve an expense of about 
half a million. The students will occupy buildings distinct 
from the Professors. The library room is to be tire-proof, 
and will contain about 28,000 rare and valuable works. The 
city contains also the " General Theological Seminary of the 
Protestant Episcopal Church," established at New Haven in 
1819, afterwards removed to this city, and located on Twen- 
tieth street, between Ninth and Tenth avenues. There is 
prospect of this being removed to Westchester or to some 
other location out of town. There are beside these, ten Med- 
ical Colleges and Academies, several Business Colleges, and 
a number of institutions of a high order for girls, Rutgers Fe- 
male College, on Fifth avenue, opposite the reservoir, rank- 
ing among the first. An effort is being made at this writing 
to secure an endowment of $500,000, to greatly enlarge and 
improve the facilities of the Institution. Much has already 
been secured, and the complete success of the undertaking is 
confidently expected by the friends of the enterprise. 

Besides he schools just enumerated, there are over 320 in- 
dependent ones, large and small, of a sectarian and miscella- 
neous character, with more than 1,500 teachers. It is to be 
regretted that so many parish and other schools, not con- 
trolled by the Board of Education, have come inxo existence 
for the perpetuation of antagonistic creeds and nationalities. 
The school property of the Board of Education has cost over 
five millions, and is now worth twice that amount. A care- 
ful examination has proved that 40,000 more scholars than 
ordinarily attend could be seated in the present buildings ; 
this is probably as man 3- or more than are taught elsewhere. 
We need but one system, and one organization, to control the 
ordinary branches of education. Our " Free^^ " Public^"* 
and '■'■ Common "^^ schools, notwithstanding all these diver- 
sions, have been the chief glory of our city for sixty years, 
and are eminently so to-day. Every movement toward the 
division of the School Fund, for the promotion of sectarian 
interest, should be zealously resisted by every thoughtful 



THE SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES OF NEW YOKE. 179 

American, Sectarian schools of a high order supported by 
private corporations, for a few advanced students, are emin- 
ently proper ; but the State should always control the secular 
education of all the children, compelling their attendance. 
Our children, representing, as they do, nearly every national- 
ity, should study the same books, in the same buildings, and 
play in the same yards. Thus only can that homogeneity be 
secured that shall give security and permanency to the Ee- 
public. The State also should ever, as now, encourage the 
reading of the Bible in the schools, that great and only true 
educator of the conscience ; not, indeed, in any sectarian 
spirit, but from great and manifest civil considerations. 



X. 



PUBLIC SECURITY. 

METROPOLITAN* POLICE DEPARTMENT — METROPOLITAN FIRE DEPART- 
MENT THE HEALTH DEPARTMENT QUARANTINE DEPARTMENT — 

MARITIME DEFENCES UNITED STATES NAVY YARD. 




MtiHOfOblTAN POLICE UEAUwrAlU'liKS. 

(300 ifulberry street.) 



The Metropolitan Police service has grown, from small and 
imperfect beginnings, to be a great and effective department 
of the city government. Many experiments and numerous 
changes of government and reorganizations have contributed 



PUBLIC SECURITY. 181 

to bring the force to its present efficiency. Twenty-eight 
years ago, portions of the city were patrolled at night by la- 
borers, porters, cartmen, &c., each carrying a lantern. When 
a regular police force was at length provided, it fell under 
the control of corrupt officials and rings, and was of uncer- 
tain service to the city, until the Legislature in 1857 took 
the matter in hand, and provided for the appointment of Po- 
lice Commissioners, independent of all city control. Since 
that, the department has rapidly improved in discipline and 
efficiency until now; but as the new charter of 1870 has 
again lodged the appointing power in the Mayor of New 
York, it remains to be seen whether the same untrammeled 
efficiency in the maintenance of public order shall be con- 
tinued. The metropolitan district was, until 1870, composed 
of the cities of New York and Brooklyn, and of portions of 
Richmond, Kings, and Westchester counties, which were 
didded into 43 precincts and several sub-precincts. At the 
close of 1869, there were on duty in New York, 2,232 ; in 
Brooklyn, 446 ; in Richmond Co., 29 ; and in Westchester, 
22 ; making a grand total of 2,729, including captains, subor- 
dinates, and patrolmen. These patroled incessantly about 
500 miles of open streets in New York, 350 in Brooklyn, the 
villages of Yonkers, Tremont, and Morrisania, while a few 
on horseback scour the suburbs of the two cities mentioned, 
and others floated around the rivers and bay. 

A squad of forty are on service at the various halls of jus- 
tice, called the Court Squad, and twenty-two are detailed for 
special service. Four are in charge of the House of Deten-' 
tion, at No. 203 Mulberry street. This is a prison for the de- 
tention of witnesses who are to give evidence in the trial of 
culprits, and one of the rankest legal abominations of New 
York. During 1869, 194 men and 52 women, or 246 wit- 
nesses, were detained in this gloomy tenement an aggregate 
of 10 years, 7 months, and 13 days. During the seven years 
just passed, 1,955 persons have here been detained as wit- 
nesses, and the aggregate of such detention has amounted to 



182 KEW YORK AXD ITS IXSTITUTIOXS. 

20,714 days, or nearly 85 years. Oue poor victim of this op- 
pressive law was detained 269 days awaiting the trial of the 
case, about which he was supposed to know something, leav- 
ing his family, wholly dependent upon him, to suffer every 
form of destitution. He was an honest mechanic, charged 
with no crime, but unfortunately knew something of the 
crimes of others. During 1869, 5 persons were detained 
over 100 days each, 16 over 60 days each, 25 over 40 days 
each, and 45 over 20 days each. It is due to the Commis- 
sioners to say, that they have again and again appealed to the 
Legislature for the modification of this system, by allowing 
the depositions of these witnesses to be taken in due form, 
after which they might be allowed to return to their homes 
and occupations. 

The Sanitary Squad consists of a captain, four sergeants, 
and fifty-seven patrolmen. A detachment of these look , 
after the safety and workings of the numerous ferry lines 
communicating with J^ew York, and tell us that about ninety 
million people cross on these lines to or fi-om the metropolis 
in a year. Others test hydrostatically at intervals, and by 
course, every steam boiler on the island ; causing defective 
ones to be repaired or removed. They examine and license 
suitable persons as engineeers. Othei-s execute the orders of 
the Board of Health. Still another detachment looks after 
truant children, compelling thousands to return to school, and 
conveying some to the Juvenile Asylum. Some members of 
the Sanitary Squad have ranked among the most pious, bene- 
volent, and useful men of New York. The Detective Squad 
consists of a captain and nineteen subordinates. These are 
all shrewd, adroit, and skillful men of good reputation, whose 
l3usiness it is to unravel the deepest schemes, ferret out the 
darkest crimes, and entrap the shrewdest villains. Their 
knowledge of polite thieves, counterfeiters, forgers, and bur- 
glars, is very extensive. Great thieves are continually 
watched by them, so that they know at once whether they 
were in a city at the time of a robbery or not. They scent 



PUBLIC SECUEITY. 1S3 

crime across a contiuent, even across the ocean. A man 
hitherto considered reputable is arrested for forgery or 
burglary, and it comes to be known that the detective can 
tell how much money his wife has expended in the city for 
twelve months. Though living in private quarters all her 
movements have been watched, and all her purchases ascer- 
tained and recorded. They grasp at every clue, and follow 
it to its result, often discovering the perpetrator of crime 
from the slightest accident. When men who have spent 
their money set up the plea of having been robbed, the de- 
tective is sure to search them out, and expose them. Mil- 
lions of dollars worth of stolen goods are annually recovered 
by tliis force, but with all their art, some great rogues escape. 
Horrible murders and bold robberies remain veiled in im- 
penetrable mystery. Much of this detective work is per- 
formed by the " Merchants' Independent Detective Police," 
established in 1858, and by members of the several other de- 
tective organizations. 

The headquarters of the Police department are a fine mar- 
ble structure, at No. 300 Mulberry street, containing elegant 
offices for all the officials, with telegraphic communications 
with every station-house in the department ; rooms for the 
instruction of candidates for the force, and for the trial of 
offenders. The Commissioners are very strict with the mem- 
bers of the force, fining and discharging many for derelic- 
tion, intemperance, or other vicious habits. The pay of a 
patrolman is $1,200 per annum, but as he has no Sabbath, or 
other pri-sdleges, such as most men enjoy, his compensation is 
not large. Men are selected and distributed according to 
their fitness for the different undertakings. The tallest are 
stationed along Broadway, those with mechanical knowledge 
tend toward the Sanitary, and those of penetration and 
adroitness, toward the Detective squads. Their appearance 
is always that of tidy, well-dressed, courteous officers, erect and 
manly in bearing, and in the prime of life, the average age 
being about thirty-five years. 



1S4 NEW YOKE AND ITS INSTITUTIONS. 

During the last nine years, the police hare returned over 
73,000 lost children to their parents or homes, and found 
above 40,000 houses left open, through the carelessness of in- 
mates, affording unembarrassed opportunities for the entrance 
of thieves and burglars. That policemen are sometimes rash, 
unduly severe and evil, we doubt not ; yet the regulations 
and discipline of the department are so severe, as to render 
them generally effective, and without them nothing would 
be safe for a day. They are distinguished for their valor, 
and their numerous bloody encounters with rioters, and vil- 
lains of every grade, are well known and startling. During 
1869 they arrested no less than 56,784 males, and 21,667 fe- 
males, making a total of 78,451. 



METROPOLITAN FIRE DEPARTMENT. 

Manhattan has several times been sadly impoverished with 
conflagrations. On September 21st, 1776, while the British 
were in possession of the city, a fire broke out in a wooden 
grogshop, near Whitehall Slip, and as there were then no en- 
gines in the city, and the men were mostly in the army, little 
resistance could be offered. 493 buildings were destroyed, 
reducing the impoverished population to great suffering. 

On the ninth of August, 1778, the second great conflagra- 
tion occurred. This began in Dock, now Pearl street, and 
consumed nearly 300 buildings. In May, 1811, another fire 
broke out in Chatham street, when nearly 100 houses were 
destroyed. In 1828 a large fire occurred, and nearly a mil- 
lion dollars of property was destroyed. The most destruct- 
ive fire, however, occurred in 1835. It began on the night 
ox the sixteenth of December, in the lower part of the city. 
The weather was colder than it had been known for over 
fifty years. The Croton had not yet been introduced, little 



METROPOLITAN FIRE DEPARTMENT. 



1S5 



water could be obtained, and that little froze in the hose be- 
fore it could be used. The buildings were mosth' of wood, 




IIEAUQUAKTKK^ NKW VuKK FIHK UEPAHTML.S 

(ITi Mercer utreet.) 



greatly favoring the work of destruction. For three days 
and nights the flames raged furiously, sweeping away 648 
houses and stores valued at $18,000,000, and leaving 45 acres 
of the business portion of the city a desert of smoking ruins. 
To crown the disaster, the insurance companies unanimously 
suspended. On the 19th of July, 18-45, another great con- 
flagration occurred, second only to tlie one just described. 
It began in ^ew street, near "Wall, sweeping onward in a 
southerly direction, until 345 buildings were consumed, in- 
flicting a loss of at least five millions. 

The Fire Department of New York has, in some form, ex- 
isted since 1653, but never attained to any eminence in 



186 NEW YOKK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS. 

point of discipline or quiet efficiency, until within the last 
few years. For many years it was composed of volunteer 
forces, who served gratuitously ; the engines were worked by 
hand ; the force, though large, was undisciplined, frequent 
collisions occurred between the different companies, and the 
noise, riot, and plunder at the fires became intolerable. On 
the 30th of March, 1865, the Legislature created the paid 
" Metropolitan Fire Department," the commissioners of 
which, after some litigation and much opposition, proceeded 
to reorganize and suitably discipline the force. This has 
gone steadily forward until New York can at length boast of 
as intelligent, disciplined, and vigilant a Fire Department as 
can be found in any city in the world. 

The force, at this writing, consists of a Chief Engineer, 
an Assistant Engineer, ten District Engineers, and five 
hundred and eighty-seven officers and men. Each Company 
consists of a Foreman and his Assistant, an Engineer, and 
nine firemen. Each Company is provided with a house, with 
appropriate rooms for rest, drill, and study. The basement 
of the building contains the furnace which keeps the water 
in the engine hot ; the horses are harnessed, and everything 
ready so that when the signal of a fire is received, ten or 
fifteen seconds only elapse before the whole company is 
flying to the scene. These twelve men accomplish with six 
times the dispatch, and with no noise, insubordination, or 
theft, what forty but poorly accomplished under the old 
regime. When on duty they have the right of way, taking 
precedence of everything, save the U. S. Mail, and their smok- 
ing engines go dashing through crowded streets at a fear- 
ful pace, but as everybody takes pains to clear the track, 
few collisions occur. The men undergo the most rigid 
examination, both physical and moral, before they are ad- 
mitted, and are only discharged on account of failing health 
or bad conduct. No nationality, political sentiment, or 
religious belief is taken into the account; but good moral 



aiETKOPOLITAN FIKE DEPARTMENT. 187 

€Ouduet, tidiness, subordination, and fidelity to duty are 
always required, and compensated with timely promotions. 

The Department has thirty-seven steam-engines, second 
size, costing four thousand dollars each, and mannfactured 
by the Amoskeag Manufacturing Company of Manchester, 
New Hampshire. It has also a floating engine which throws 
several powerful streams, which is used to extinguish fires on 
the piers, or in vessels anchored in the bay. 

The horses, which now number one hundred and fifty-six, 
are the finest and best-trained in America. They are large, 
well-formed, fleshy, and perfectly docile. They nnderstand 
their business as well as the firemen. The sound of the gong 
puts them on needles until they are fastened to the engine, 
which they whirl through storm, mud, or snow-banks with a 
speed which is often surprising. 

Occasionally an unhappy circumstance occurs. A false 
step in the haste of departure precipitates a poor fireman 
near the door of the engine-house, just in time to be crushed 
by the pondrous wheels of the engine in its rapid exit, and 
his sorrow-stricken comrades toil on for hours against the 
raging element, before they have a moment to return and 
shed a friendly tear over his remains. Sometimes New 
Yorkers sit down to their breakfast-tables, and glancing at 
the morning paper, read of an immense fire that has occurred 
during the night, where several devoted firemen were 
crushed beneath the falling walls, or went hopelessly down 
into a sea of flame from the roof or floor of a building, while 
in discharge of a perilous duty. Sometimes an engine bui-sts, 
spreading terror and death on every side. The means of 
public safety are attended with private toils and woes that 
would fill volumes. 

The signals are now mostly given by telegraph, and few 
people hear of a fire within a few blocks of their door, until 
all is over. The police have charge of the order to be ob- 
served in the vicinity of a fire ; they frequently draw ropes at 
a proper distance, inside of which none are allowed but the 



188 NEW YORK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS. 

firemen, and those directly interested. Though the city is- 
constantly enlarging, the loss by fires is steadily diminishing. 
In 1866, there were 796 fires, with a loss of $6,428,000. In 

1867, there were 873 fires, with a loss of $5,711,000. In 

1868, there were 740 fires, with a loss of $4,342,371 ; and in 

1869, there were 850 fires, with a loss of but $2,626,393. But 
forty-three of the 850 fires of the last year extended to 
adjoining buildings, which gives some idea of the rapidity 
with which the work of extinction is conducted. The head- 
quarters at 127 Mercer street contain the offices of the Com- 
missioners, Chief Engineer, Secretary, Medical Officer, Tele- 
graph, Bureau of Combustible Materials, and Fireman's 
Lyceum. The last-named, organized quite recently, now 
contains a library of over 4,000 volumes, besides many 
curious engravings, and relics of the Department. Beside 
the thirty-seven eugine-houses, and fifteen truck-houses, the 
Department has a repair yard in Elizabeth street, where most 
of its work is now done, a number of hospital stables in 
Chrystie street, and eleven bell-towers. All fines imposed on 
fii-emen, and all imposed on citizens for violating the hatch- 
way and kerosene ordinances, go to the " Fire Department 
Relief Fund," for the relief of the widows and orphans of 
firemen. 



THE HEALTH DEPAETMENT. 

Every great center of population is occasionally overtaken 
with pestilence, and with various local and travelling diseases. 
Manhattan has not been the exception. In 1702, the yellow 
fever Avas brought from St. Thomas, of which over six hun- 
dred persons died, about one-twelfth of the entire popula- 
tion. In 1732, an infectious disease appeared, of which 
seventy persons died in a week. In 1743, a bilious plague 
prevailed, of which two hundred and seventeen died. In 



THE HEALTH DEPARTMEXT. 189 

1745. malignant fever j)re vailed ; and in 1747, the bilious 
plague reappeared. Yellow fever returned in 1791, 1794, 
179^5, 1797, 1799, 1801, 1803, 1805, 1822, 1856, and 1870. 

Over thirty-five hundred died of cholera in 1832, nine 
hundred and seventy-one in 1834, five thousand and seventy- 
one in 1849, three hundred and seventy-four in 1^2, and a 
small number in 1866. There are a few cases of cholera 
nearly every year. A great city, unless carefully guarded, 
soon becomes a sink of putrefaction, which not only aggra- 
vates but engenders disease. To prevent as far as' possible 
this unnecessary waste of human life, the sanitary interests 
of the metropolis have been for some years committed to the 
care of a Board of Health Commissioners, vested with large 
power, who have given their entire attention to this branch 
of the public service. 

The JN'ew Health Depaetiment, under the present charter, 
xjonsists of the Police Commissioners of New Tork, the 
Healtli officer of the Port, and of four Commissioners of 
Health, appointed by the Mayor, for the term of five years, 
with a salary of $5,000 each, two of whom must have been 
practising physicians in the city, for a period of five years 
previous to their appointment. The Department is divided 
into four bureaus. The chief officer of one is called the 
"' City Sanitary Inspector." This officer must be selected 
from the medical fraternity, having practised ten years in 
the city. Complaints against fat or bone-boiling establish- 
ments, or other questionable buildings or practices, are made 
to this oflicer. Another is styled the " Bureau of Sanitary 
Permit." This Bureau grants licenses for burials, without 
which a dead body cannot be brought into or removed 
from the city. Another is the " Bureau of Street Cleaning." 
The chief officer of the fourth Bureau is called the " Register 
of Records." This is the bureau of vital statistics. He 
records without charge all marriages, births, deaths, and the 
inquisitions of the coroners. It is the duty of every clergy- 
man, or magistrate, solemnizing matrimony, to report the 



190 NEW YORK AND ITS mSTITUTIONS. 

same to this officer, and of physicians to report all births and 
deaths occurring in their practice. The former Board of 
Health was very vigilant and nseful, guarding with scrupu- 
lous care the sanitary interests of the city, warding off chol- 
era and various contagious diseases, and rendering the me- 
tropolis so salubrious as to impoverish many physicians. The 
first year of the new Board has witnessed the ravages of 
yellow fever on Governor's Island, with a number of deaths. 



QUAKAXTIXE DEPARTIMENT. 

Every large city is compelled to provide a Quarantine, 
as a matter of self-preservation, especially seaport towns. The 
first measures for a Quarantine in New York were inaugur- 
ated by the passage of an act in 1758, to prevent the spread of 
infectious diseases. By Act of May 4th, 1794, Governor's 
Island was made the Quarantine, and in March, 1797, a laza- 
retto was directed to be built on Bedloe's Island. The ravages 
of yellow fever led in 1799 to the purchase of thirty acres of 
land on Staten Island, five of which were ceded to the United 
States Government for warehouses, and on the remainder per- 
manent quarantine buildings were erected. The first build- 
ings were erected with the material taken from the demolished 
lazaretto on Bedloe's Island. In 1819, a long brick building 
was erected ; in 1823, a fever hospital ; in 1828-29, a small- 
pox hospital ; and such subsequent additions were made as 
the wants of the Institution required. The great increase of 
population on Staten Island, and the return of yellow fever 
in 1856-58, mau}^ cases occurring in the vicinity of the quar- 
antine, the long-cherished desire for its removal burst forth 
in a frenzy, of which the whole populace seemed to partake. 
On the evening of the 1st of September, 1858, Jthe buildings 
were entered by the excited multitudes, the sick carried on 
their mattresses into the yards, and every lo^ilding save the 
women's hospital destroyed by fire. This last-named edifice 



QUARANTINE DEPARTMENT. 191 

was destroyed the following evening, making the ruin com- 
plete. 

Quarantine is now located on the east of Staten Island, 
several miles below Castle Garden, on artificial islands con- 
structed for that purpose. The sick, until a year or two since, 
were kept in vessels stationed in the lower bay for that pm'- 
pose. During 1869, the West Bank Hospital was completed at 
a cost of over three hundred thousand dollars. This is one of 
the largest and best-arranged quarantine buildings in the world. 
The foundation consists of crib-work of heavy timbers fas- 
tened together, filled with stone and sand, and sunk. The crib 
contains 15,000 cubic yards of stone, and 56,000 cubic yards 
of sand. The Hospital is a one-story edifice, divided into 
eight wards, each 89 feet long and 24 wide, and can accom- 
modate fifty patients each. The Hospital is supplemented by 
other buildings, used as baggage house, wash-house, dead- 
house, and apartments for superintendent, physicians, nurses 
etc. The buildings are lighted with gas, and connected 
by telegraph with New York. During 1869, 213 vessels ar- 
rived from ports infected with yellow fever ; and in 1870 no 
less than 365 such vessels, with at least 470 yellow fever pati- 
ents on board. Thirty vessels carrying about 18,000 persons 
were detained at Quarantine, having small-pox. during 1870, 
and ten vessels with ship fever, yet so vigilant were the health 
ofiicers that no panic occurred on shore, and none of these dis- 
eases spread in the city. Yellow fever, however, broke out in 
the autumn of the last year among the troops on Governor's 
Island, eighty-three of whom were prostrated and tliirty-uue 
died. The health and prosperity of the Metropolis are more 
largely dependent npon quarantine vigilance tlian many sup- 
pose. Another building for the detention of persons exposed 
to disease, while on passage in an infected vessel, has been 
commenced at West Bank, and a warehouse for the storage 
of infected goods will follow, making our Quarantine com- 
plete and unrivalled. The annual expense of this branch of 
our measures for public security, exclusive of permanent ira- 



192 



NEW TOEK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS. 



provements, amounts to about $50,000. The Quarantine Com- 
missioners have exclusive control of the Hospital, and are 
distinct from the Health Department of the city. 



MARITIME DEFENCES, 




ORTIFICATIOXS erected under the 
trained skill of cultivated military en- 
gineers have lono; been the chief means 
of defence for all civilized cities and 
countries. It is therefore a little remai*k- 
able, that while l^ew York was from the 
earliest settlement the chief city and 
heart of the country, no general effort to 
suitably f ortif}" its approaches was made 
until the outburst of the war of 1812. 

Rude fortifications were then placed upon some of the small 
islands, in the upper bay, and Fort Lafayette was commenced 
on Hendricks Eeef, 200 yards from the shore, in what is 
known as the Narrows, the water doorway to the Metropolis. 
This fort, when completed, had cost about $350,000, and 
mounted seventy-three heavy guns. Its chief fame during the 
half -century has arisen from the fact of its having been 
made the house of detention for political prisoners during the 
late civil war, and some who read this notice will require no 
fuller description of it. The elements were unfriendly to 
this fortress, however, and on the first of December, 1868, it 
was destroyed by fire, leaving only the naked walls. The 
government is about to rebuild it on a greatly improved scale. 
In 182-1, Fort Hamilton was commenced, immediately op- 
posite the former, standing on an eminence on the Long Island 
shore. It was completed in 1832, at an expense of $550,000, 
and mounted sixty heavy guns. It has recently been supple- 
mented with a strong battery, and now numbers in its arma- 
ment some of the celebrated Rodman guns, that discharge a 



MARITIME DEFENCES. 



193 




spherical ball weigliing a thousand pounds. Several of the 
other guns throw balls weighing four hundred and fifty pounds. 
Directly opposite these works, on the Staten Island shore, 
stand Forts Richmond and Tompkins, both new and improved 
works, constructed of gray stone, mounting many guns of 
huge caliljre. Fort Tompkins is a water battery of formida- 
ble appearance, while Fort Richmond occupies the bluff in its 
rear, spreading out with its accompanying batteries at great 
length, and is so arranged as to shoot over Fort Tompkins, 
and sweep the channel for miles. Batteries Hudson, Morton, 
North Cliff, and South Cliff have been completed, and another 
is now being constructed. The channel at this point is but 
little more than a mile wide, and these fortifications are so ar- 
ranged that with suitable projectiles and management, such a 
shower of balls and shells may be rained as to prevent the en- 
trance of a fleet of iron-clads. 

The upper bay is favored with several islands, admiraljly 
arranged for fortifications. Ellis Island, two thousand and 
fifty yards southwest from Castle Garden, is occupied by 
Fort Gibson, built in 1841-44, mounting fifteen or twenty 
guns, and requiring a garrison of one hundred men. Bed- 



194 



NEW YORK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS. 




FORT HAMILTON, NEW YORK HARBOR. 

{Long Island side of Narrows.) 



loe's Island, situated 2,950 yards southwest of Castle Garden, 
is occupied by Fort Wood, erected in 1841, at a cost of 
$213,000, on the site of a fort built at the beginning of the 
century. It has space for eighty guns, and a garrison of 
three hundred and fifty men. A strong battery is now being 
added to this fort. 

Governor's Island containing seventy -two acres, and situa- 
ted ten hundred and sixty-six yards from Castle Garden, is 
also wholly devoted to maritime defence. Its largest work 
is Fort Columbus, a star-shaped fortification with five points, 
standing on the summit of the island, with quarters for many 
troops. Castle William is a three-story round tower, situated 
on the west shore of the island, six hundred feet in circum- 
ference, and sixty feet high, mounting over one hundred guns. 
South Battery fronts on Buttermilk channel, separating the 
island from Brooklyn (which channel was once forded by 
cattle, but now affords anchorage for heavy ships), and mounts 
fifteen heavy guns. An immense barbette battery is now be- 



MARITIME DEFENCES. 195 

ing constructed on this island, which will require several years 
for its completion. Governor's Island, in time of war, re- 
quires a garrison of a thousand men. Acres of its sui'f ace 
are covered with heavy cannon, and with pyramids of balls 
and shells, thoroughly painted to resist the action of the ele- 
ments. Here recruits ai-e drilled for the service, and deser- 
ters detained as prisoners. There are also very extensive 
works at Sandy Hook, jS'ew Jersey, calculated to prevent the 
occupation of the lower bay, as a place of anchorage to an 
enemy's fleet. 

Fort Schuyler, a large strong fortification, constructed 'tf 
gray stone, mounting over three hundred guns, and requiring 
a war garrison of fifteen hundred troops, stands at Throggs^ 
Xeck, several miles up the East river, and is designed to pre- 
vent the approach of armed vessels to Xew York by way of 
Long Island Sound. This fortification is being extensively 
remodelled, at an expense of several hundred thousand dollars. 
Willet Point unites with Fort Schuyler in guarding this eas- 
tern channel of approach, which, with the late improvements 
at Hurl Gate, requires to be more carefully defended than 
formerly. Willet Point is the principal engineer depot of 
the Department of the East. Here the surplus stores which 
accumulated during the war were largely deposited. Here 
bridge-trains, and equipage, intrenching, mining, and other 
tools, are preserved for use, in future field service. The de- 
pot is guarded and cared for, and the property issued by en- 
gineer troops. This place is also, at present, the Torpedo 
School of the United States army, and extensive experiments 
in that line are now being made. Many millions have been 
consumed on these fortifications and their armament, which 
cover all the strong points about the harbors, and vast sums 
are still being ex-pended ; yet, with all this, it is doubtless true 
that Xew York is not defended as its importance demands. 
The old walls, gims, and round shot of the fathers are of lit- 
tle use in these days of impr<jved projectiles and floating bat- 
teries. And while we would not encourage a useless expendi- 



196 



NEW YORK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS. 



ture in the arts of war, too much pains can scarcely be taken 
by the government to prevent the capture of the Metropolis, 
in the event of a sudden contlict with a maritime power. It 
should also be remembered that while the nations are beating 
their ploughshai-es into swords, and their pruning hooks into 
cannon and shells, to thorouglily prepare for war is the sur- 
est promise of peace. 



THE UNITED STATES NAVY YARD. 




THE BROOKLYN N V\ i lAPD 

(Marine Hobpitul in the distance ) 



Having looked in vain for the appropriate niche where a 
brief account of the United States K"a\7 Yard might be in- 
troduced, we insert it here. In ISOl, the government pur- 
chased fifty-five acres of ground located on Wallabout Bay, 
now lying between the Eastern and Western Districts of the 
city of Brooklyn. Subsequent purchases have increased the 
amount to about two hundred acres, which cost originally 



THE UNITED STATES NAVY YAED. 



107 




E>TRANCE TO NAVY YABD, BROOKLYN. 



$40,000, and is now valued at twenty millions. The Navy Yard 
proper covers about fifty acres, is laid out with paved streets 
and walks, which are kept very clean. The Dry Dock, begun in 
1S41, is a vast structure, capable of taking in a ship 300 feet 
long, and cost between two and three million dollai's. It is 
emptied by steam pumps. The yard contains large buildings 
to cover ships of war while in process of building, extensive 
lumber warehouses, great numbers of cannon, pyramids of 
shot and shell, shops, foundries, etc., etc. A JS'aval Museum, 
filled with curiosities sent home by ofiicers, a Marine Hospital, 
with barracks for troops, cottages for officers, and other neces- 
sary appendages, are spread around the premises. It is a 
place of curiosity, and is visited by many thousands annually, 
but as it occupies nearly the heart of the city, the enterprising 
property-owners would gladly see it removed.' Congress has 
begun to debate the matter of its removal, and it will probably 
be accomplished before many more years elapse. 



XI. 



KEW YORK ALL THE YEAK ROUND. 




H 



^■^^^^f'EW YORK is situated in latitude (of 
City Hall) 40° 42' 43" North, longi- 
tude 74° 0' 3 " West, and a little south 
of the centre of the belt described as the north 
temperate zone. As the city stands in the 
upper bay, eighteen miles from the Atlantic 
Ocean, the extreme rigor of the ocean blast is 
lost ere it reaches the city, calming gently doM-n 
n into a bracing and healthful breeze. The cli- 
mate is quite changeable, often characterized by 
the extremes of heat and cold, yet, all things con- 
sidered, is perhaps as salubrious as that in any other part of 
the world. New York, unlike London and many other cities 
enveloped half the year in an impenetrable fog, is blest with 
a clear atmosphere, so that despite the smoke of a hundred 
thousand chimneys, its inhabitants can nearly every day in 
the year look upon a sky as blue and fair as the Italian. 



WINTER IN NEW YORK. 



New York has a brief but emphatically a northern winter, 
the great sheets of salt water lying around it rendering the 
atmosphere very chilly, and usually making the impression, 
that the weather is colder than the thermometer indicates. 
The winter begins properly about the first of December, and 
continues about three months, but as the mercury seldom falls 



WmXER m ISTEW YORK. 199 

below zero (Fahrenheit) the weather may be considered but 
moderately cold. About once in ten or twenty years, how- 
ever, the cold becomes intense. The winter of 1740-41 was 
thus marked. The rivers were frozen, and the snow, which 
was six feet deep, covered the earth for a long period. Just 
twenty years later (1760) the cold was so intense that the 
Narrows were frozen over, and men and teams crossed with- 
out danger. But the coldest ever known since the settlement 
of the country occurred in 1779-80. The Hudson River was 
one solid bridge of ice for forty days, and Long Island Sound 
was nearly frozen over in its widest part. The bay was so 
Bolidly frozen, that an expedition with eighty sleighs, and as 
many pieces of artillery, crossed to Staten Island, and returned 
to New York in the same manner. The city was at that time 
held by the British garrison, trade almost wholly suspended, 
and the suffering among the populace became intense. The 
British commander, under severe penalty, ordered the inhabit- 
ants of Long Island and of Staten Island to cut their timber 
and draw it to the city for sale, but even this fail'ed to bring 
the needed supply. Many families sawed up their tables and 
chairs to cook their food, and covered themselves in bed day 
and night to avoid freezing to death. A shipbuilder named 
Bell cut up a rope cable worth six hundred dollars for back- 
logs, and a spar equally valuable for fuel. Another severe 
winter was experienced in 1820, and again in 1835, and the 
rivers have been again so frozen in our day as to afford safe 
crossing. 

Occasionally there is a fine run of sleighing, lasting several 
weeks. This is a gay and brilliant period for the wealthy 
classes, and a golden haiwest for the livery stables, each team 
and sleigh earning the proprietor from one hundred to two 
hundred dollars per day. But this period of festivity is one of 
deep privation and suffermg among the poor. A lieavy fall 
of snow suspends all operations on public works, building, 
grading, etc. It is not unusual to have seventy or a hundred 
thousand men out of employment at mid-winter, half of 



200 NEW TOKK AND ITS INSllTUTIONS. 

■u'hom have no money to pay rent, provide the necessaries of 
life for their families, or to bury their own dead. It is at 
this season, often characterized by immense losses and snffer- 
ings, that the deepest religious impressions are made npon 
the masses by the Churches. An old divine once quaintly 
said that " the Lord did not enter New York until after the 
rivers were frozen over." This is not true ; yet such is the 
rush of business and pleasure, that no general spiritual har- 
vest is gathered until after the holidays. A cold winter^ 
affording fine opportunities for sleigh-riding and skating, is 
much relished, and except the suffering among the poor, 
resulting from insufiicient food, clothing, and fuel, is by far 
the most healthy and desirable. 



SPRIXa IN NEW YORK. 



Spring may be said to open generally about the first of 
March, and is considered pleasant to all except those afflicted 
with pulmonary complaints. To this class the air is moist, 
harsh, and severe, until near the middle of May. Parks, 
lawns, and gardens are clothed with the finest green by the 
first of April, and fragrant flowers bud and bloom in rich 
luxuriance. 

Spring is the period for projecting new parks, streets, piers^ 
public buildings, letting contracts, opening business, etc. 
Everything hums with excitement fi'om the Battery to Har- 
lem bridge, the rivers and bay are white with sloops and 
crafts laden with brick, lumber, sand, and a hundred other 
articles of domestic commerce, and everj^body plans and 
hopes for a business harvest. The beauty and toil of this 
busy period are marred and aggravated by the advent of 
" May-day." On the first few days of May nearly half the 
families exchange houses, filling the streets day and night with 



SPRING IN NEW YORK. 201 

loads of furniture and clouds of dust. The sidewalks are 
thronged in the meantime with women, boys, and girls, car- 
rying mirrors, pictures, books, vases, babies, birds, dogs, etc., 
etc. Half the houses need repairing, and every family " must 
he served first ; " hence, masons, plumbers, painters, and gla- 
ziers are in great demand, many of them toiling night and 
day. After a few weeks the houses are adjusted, the streets 
swept, the families appear in church, the children in school, 
and everything assumes a more cheerful aspect. 

* These extensive removals necessitate the annual compiling 
of a new City Directory, which is gotten out with great dis- 

* " The New York City Directory for 1871-72, just issued, is quite as inter- 
esting and complete as any of its predecessors. It contains 1,268 pages, ex- 
clusive of 172 pages of advertisements, and sixty-two pages of miscellaneous 
matter ; the present volume contains 200,953 names. It is quite amusing 
to note the singvdarity of some of the names to be found within its pages. 
For instance, there are a number of Houses and only one Foundation ; a 
number of the Goodkind, Corns and CoflSns, several Plants, some Lively and 
some Nott, Long, Short, and Hot. Of the different colors, there are 547 
Whites, 91 Blacks, 938 Browns, 3 Blues, and 253 Greens. Then there are 
30 Whiteheads and 2 Bedheads ; 22 Bulls, 3 Cowards, 1 Happy, 1 Hen, and 
1 Chick. Of the Seasons, there are 32 Winters, 24 Springs, and 5 Sum- 
mers ; of household utensils, 5 Pitchers, 16 Bowles, 1 Broker, 2 AUwell, and 
one Sick ; of horse-fare, 4 Oats, 3 Straws, and 33 Hays. There are, also, 60 
Lords, 21 Dukes, 321 Kings, 10 Queens, 20 Princes, 14 Barons, and 24 Earls. 
The O's occupy seven columns, and the M's 85 colixnms. The ancient name 
of Smith occurs 1806 times. There are 36 Barbers to 1 Shaver, 5 Shoe- 
makers, 7 Tinkers, and 1 Blower ; 56 Pages with only 1 Blot ; 1 Untied, 2 
Loose, and 1 Blind ; 3 Lawyers against 28 Judges, and 2 Juries with no Ver- 
dict. Then again there are 40 Popes, 11 Priests, and 81 Bishops, 12 Pea- 
cocks and 2 Heads; 2 Books. 4 Bound; 16 Coffees, with 18 Beans; 26 
Shepherds with 11 Flocks ; 1 Ship, 2 Masts, and 64 Seamen. Of the differ- 
ent nations, there are 5 Englands, 18 Irelands, 4 Wales, 2 Chinas, 2 
Germanys, 2 Frenchmen, 8 Germans, 2 Dutch, 1 Irish, 32 Enghsh, 99 
Welsh, and only 2 Americans, and 7 Turks. Of the different fruits, 
there are 3 Apples, 4 Peaches, 7 Plums. Then come 7 Moons, 1 Morning- 
star, and 1 Gentleman. The name of George Washington occurs 9 times, 
that of Thomas Jefferson twice, John Quincy Adams four times, and Sly , 
Smart, and Slick once each. There are 2 Clocks, and 39 Hands ; 1 Lion, 3 
Bears, and 96 Wolfs ; followed by 14 Divines, and 9 Deacons. The shortest 
name in the Directory is Py." 



202 NEW YORK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS, 

patch. The note on preceding page appeared in the New 
York Tribune^ June 17, 1871, and will explain itself. 



STBIMER IN NEW YORK. 

This period, the loveliest of all in many parts of the world, 
is here, to all classes, the most unpleasant and trying of the 
whole year. During July or August, nearly every year, the 
heat becomes intense, sickness greatly prevails, and death 
reaps an al3undant harvest. Business, with few exceptions, 
is almost wholly prostrated, many large houses not selling for 
months sufficient to pay their rents. Merchants, bankers, 
clerks, ministers, nearly all who have means, fly with a part 
or all of their families to the country, visiting the watering 
places, the White Mountains, the Catskills, their farmer- 
relatives, the conventions, and camp-meetings, and not a few 
cross the Atlantic. Schools are suspended, churches deserted, 
and many of them closed. Beer-gardens, soda and ice-cream- 
saloons, ice-dealers, and a few others reap their annual har- 
vest. Physicians, druggists, and undertakers find little 
time for relaxation, and the few clergymen remaining in the 
city have incessant calls to minister to the sick, and to bury 
the dead. 

The ferries, excursion-boats, and railroad-trains are crowded 
with eager thousands, anxious to snuff the breezes of the coun- 
try or bay, if it be but for a day or an hour. The parks, 
squares, and suburbs are thi-onged on Sabbath with countless 
thousands unable to proceed to any greater distance from the 
scorching city. 

This period is particularly fatal to infant children. Men 
and women, from sultry tenements, may be seen all hours of 
the night, walking the streets with pale, gasping infants in 
their arms, most of whom with a change of air might 



SUMMER IN NEW TOEK. 203 

recover, but who soon find a narrow cell in the neighboring 
cemeteries. The mortality among the laboring classes is 
often groat during the heated term. On the ITth of July, 
1866, the mercury stood at 104" in the shade, and 135** in 
the sun. One hundred and sixty-nine cases of coup de soleU, 
or sunstroke, were reported in New Tork alone, besides a 
large number in Brooklyn and Jersey City, a large per cent- 
age of which proved fatal. Over twenty head of fat cattle 
in the market-yard on Forty-fourth street died of heat, and 
scores of horses fell dead in the streets. Laborers and quiet 
citizens were alike prostrated. A carpenter at work in the 
gallery of a church fell to the audience-room, and was 
carried home by his fellow- workmen to die. A huckster 
was overcome in his wagon on the same block, the same day. 
A young lady, oppressed with heat, started with some friends 
for New England, by one of the Sound steamers, but expired 
soon after leaving the pier. A seamstress in the upper part 
of the city, without any exercise or fatigue, fell from the 
chair in which she was sitting, and instantly expired. A 
wealthy lady on the east side of the city entered her private 
coach to visit a sick friend. On entering her friend's house, 
she felt a sense of faintness stealing over her, and after 
making some hasty inquiries, remarked that she did not feel 
well, and would not sit down. She returned to her carriage, 
and ordered the coachman to drive home quickly. He did 
so, l)ut on opening the carriage door found only her lifeless 
form. 

This excessive heat never continues more than a few weeks, 
and rarely above a few days. The perils of such seasons are 
frightful, especially to dissipated and careless people. The 
burning rays pour down for weeks without rain or dew, upon 
leafless streets, until the pavements glow with heat like a 
fiery furnace, in which humanity is sweltered and baked 
alive. It is not proper at such times for strangers to enter 
the city, and many of tliose who do, after remaining a short 
time in the Morgue, are deposited by the authorities in an 



204 NEW YORK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS. 

unknown grave. The summer of 1869 was unusually cool; 
and that of 1870 warmer than any experienced in more than 
twenty years. Fewer sunstrokes, however, occurred than in 
1866, as many of the laborers wore cabbage-leaves under 
their hats, a simple experiment which probably saved the 
lives of thousands. 



AUTUJIN IN NEW YORK. 



September brings the return tide of a surging population. 
The great heat of the season has passed, vacations are ended, 
and nearly every resident is anxious to see how it looks in 
New York. Teachers of the public schools, and scholars 
who have been luxuriating amid the shades and glens of the 
green mountains, return to resume their labors and studies. 
Churches, refitted and refurnished, are opened with impressive 
and attractive services, and glad pastors and people exchange 
their mutual congratulations. The wholesale dry-goods trade 
has already opened, crowding many of the down-town streets 
with such piles of new boxes that the pedestrian can scarcely 
pass. New stores are opened with brilliant windows, new 
books and styles announced, and handbills profuse as the 
leaves of autumn spread in every direction. The markets 
abound with fruits and vegetables of every description, and 
from, every part of the country, rich and luscious ; but, how- 
ever plentiful, through the perverseness of the middlemen, 
they are always costly here. Autumn is preeminently the 
season for music, promenade, and parade. Music is much 
cultivated in New York. Singing is taught in the public 
schools, the Sabbath-schools meet twice, devoting most of one 
session to singing, so that children with little talent in that 
line, by this long-continued drilling, nearly all learn to sing. 
In autumn one is attracted by niusic at the park, music at 
the school, music at the church, concert, theater, in the 



AUTUMN IN NEW TOKK. 205 

drawing-room, and in the public street. Military organiza- 
tions, target companies, and the members of various societies, 
parade the streets, or ride after richly caparisoned horses, 
wearing unique uniforms, filling the air with strains of 
music. Organ-grinders, from every nation, and of every age, 
multiply at every corner, to the disgust of merchants and 
householders. At this season hundreds of persons from the 
surrounding country flock to the city in quest of situations, 
but failing to obtain them, depart in disappointment, or linger 
to swell the ranks of vagrants and criminals. Cold weather 
seldom arrives earlier than December, leaving three delight- 
ful months for business, study, and pleasure. The climate 
during the whole of autumn is bracing, cheerful, and bland 
beyond all description. 



XII. 



THE LIBRARIES, M0NUME:N^TS, AND MARKETS OF 
NEW YORK. 




MJERCANTILE LIBRARY— C^LINTON Hi 

(Astor Place and Eighth street. ) 



THE LIBRARIES. 

The libraries of Manhattan far excel those of any other 
city on the continent. The first public library was establislied 
in 1729, when Rev. John Millington, Eector of Newington, 
England, bequeathed 1622 volumes to the " Society for the 
Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts." Rev. John 
Sharp, chaplain of Lord Bellamont, having some years previ- 
ously presented a collection of books, they were now arranged 



THE LIBRARIES. 207 

and offered for the public use under the title of the " Corpo- 
ration Library." But the librarian soon died, and the library 
was neglected. In 1754, a few enterprising minds organized 
the " Society Library," and by grant of the Common Council, 
added this old library to their own collection. The society 
was chartered by George III. in 1772, and still flourishes 
with a library of about 50,000 volumes, 

" Tbe N^ew York Historical Society," which has done 
more than any other to preserve the reminiscences of early 
E'ew York, was founded in 1S04. Its rooms contain, besides 
the library, many choice and rare curiosities. 

" The Mercantile Library Association " has held its fif- 
tieth anniversary, and is, perhaps, the most popular institution 
of its kind in the city. It owns its fine edifice, Clinton Hall, 
on Astor Place, has a property valued at half a million, and 
a library of one hundred and twenty thousand volumes, 
which increases at about ten per cent, per annum. Its read- 
ing-room contains four hundred papei-s and magazines. 

The "Astor Library" is the largest in jS"ew York, and 
contains one hundred and thirty-five thousand volumes, 
mostly solid works. It is emphatically the great library of 
reference for scholars, and fills an important place in the 
literary facilities of the metropolis. The cut presents a view 
of the original structure, as provided for by the bequest of 
John Jacob Astor, but which has been enlarged by his son, 
William B. Astor. The present building and library form a 
worthy monument of two worthy men. 

Besides these we may mention the " Apprentices' Library," 
of fifty thousand volumes, the " Library of the American In- 
stitute," the " New York City Library," the " Printers Free 
Libraiy," the " "Women's Library," the " Harlem Library," tlie 
"M(jtt Memorial Medical Library," the "New York Law 
Institute Library," and the immense libraries connected with 
the large institutions of learning. Honorable Peter Cooper 
has also during this year, on the occurrence of his eightieth 
birthday, surprised the community with the gift of $150,000, 



208 NEW YOKE AND ITS INSTITUTIONS. 

to foimd a complete library for working men. To these will 
also soon be added the "Lenox Library," founded by the dis- 
tinguished philanthropist whose name it bears, who has just 
set aside land and $300,000 for the erection of appropriate 
buildings, opposite Central Park, to which he adds his entire 
collection of statuary, paintings, and books, said to be the most 
valuable in the country, and money sufficient to make it com- 
plete and unrivaled. Besides these, there are numerous read- 
ing-rooms judiciously distributed through the city, furnished 
with all the periodical literature of the day, opened by 
the Young Men's Christian Association, and other benevolent 
societies. 



MONUMENTS. 



Some portions of New York and vicinity are thickly 
studded with monuments, commemorating the names and 
deeds of the great, the patriotic, or the admired. Some 
reared by private enterprise over the remains of friends have 
cost large fortunes, and money which might have blessed the 
world has, in more than one instance, been foolishly thrown 
away. Some very laudable efforts in this line have, however, 
been undertaken. Churches have reared chaste monuments 
in memory of devoted pastors, students to eminent men of 
letters, and soldiers to attest their respect for fallen comrades. 
The soldiers' monument, which lifts its modest head on the 
western elevation of Greenwood cemetery, and the one 
erected by the Seventh regiment in Central Park, are 
very imposing testimonials of patriotic regard. The beauti- 
ful monument of Colmnbus, the peerless navigator, and that 
of the learned Humboldt, and one of Shakspeare, all recentlj 
placed in Central Park, are worthy of mention. 

Old Trinity church-yard contains several, the most impor- 
tant of which is — 



^^'^f'l 










:^ ^' -v'-^^ilti ^--'. ' . ,**;Mi ; / ^''v Ift^. , - 



New York Historical Society— Second Avenue, cor. Eleventh Street. 




New York Society Library— 67 University Place. 




Columbia College— Fiftieth Street, between 4th and 5th Avenues. 




College of Physicians and Surgeons— Cor. 23d Street and 4th Avenue. 



MONUMENTS 



209 



The !Marttks' Monument, erected by the Trinity corpora- 
tion in 1852, to the memory of those patriots who died in the 
old Siiijar House and in other prisons during the Revohition. 




MAJilYRS MONLMtNT 

{Trinity Church Cemetery.) 




WOBTH MONUMENT. 
(Madison square and Fifth avenue.) 



It is a chaste Gothic structure of brown stone, standing on a 
granite foundation, about forty-five feet high, appropriately 
inscribed, and crowned with the American eagle. 

The Worth Monument, erected on the west side of Madi- 
son square by the corporation of the city of New York in 
1857, is the only one completed at the public expense. The 
monument is a four-sided chaste granite obelisk ; its sides, be- 
sides presenting the equestrian image in liigh relief, are 
nearly covered with inscriptions, setting forth the career of 



210 



NEW YORK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS. 



the hero of Cherubusco and Chapultepec. Ilandsonie br(jiize 
reliefs are introduced between the several inscriptions. 

The Washington Monument stands at the south-east por- 
tion of Union square, and is a colossal bronze equestrian 




WASHINGTON MONUMENT. 

{Union square and Fouvteenth street.) 



statue, executed with great artistic skill by Browne, and was 
erected through the laudable efforts of Colonel Lee. The 
figure is fourteen and one-half feet high, and stands upon an 
immense granite pedestal of the same height, making the 
whole twenty-nine feet. This representation of the Father 
of his country has been universally admired. The means for 
its erection were contributed by the inhabitants of the neigh- 
borhood. It is said that the gentlemen who circulated the 
subscription called one day on a property-owner, noted alike 



MONUMENTS. 211 

for his wealth and avarice. The subject being presented, the 
miser stated that he could give nothing, and remarked that 
no monument was necessary. Laying his hand upon his 
breast he exclaimed, with emphasis, " / heep the Father of 
his country here" " Well," responded the intrepid collector, 
" if the Father of his country is there, he is in the tightest 
2)lace he ever found." 

The Lincoln Montoient, erected in September, 1870, by 
the Union League Club, stands at the south-west corner of 
Union square, and corresponds in position with the Washing- 
ton monument on the opposite corner. The pedestal consists 
of three Dix Island granite stones, which weigh in all over 
forty tons, and is twenty-four feet high. The statue, which 
represents the deceased statesman in citizen's dress, but cov- 
ered with a Roman toga, is of bronze, nearly eleven feet high, 
and weighs tliree thousand pounds. The design was formed 
by H. K. Brown, Esq., and is a faithful representation of the 
martyred President. In his left hand he holds the Proclama- 
tion of Emancipation, and a galaxy of stars on the pedestal 
represent the States of the Union. 

The Yandeebh^t Monument, erected in 1869, and crown- 
ing the western wall of the immense freight depot which 
covers the old St. John's Park, is by far the most elaborate 
and costly undertaking of its kind on Manhattan. It was 
conceived, and carried forward to completion, mainly through 
the untiring exertions of Captain Albert De Groot. The 
whole scene in bronze is one hundred and fifty feet long, and 
over thirty feet high, with admirable groupings of ancient 
and modern representations, and is designed to allegorically 
exhibit the brilliant and successful career of the dashing 
Commodore. The central and chief figure is the Raih'oad 
King, a life-like and correct statue, twelve feet high, weigh- 
inof over four tons. On the left of this central figm-e ever^'- 
thing is seafaring, representing his early beginnings on the 
New York Bay, his later travels, and his patriotic munificence. 
In the distance Neptune in bold relief is seen, in a half -re- 



212 NEW YORK AXD ITS INSTITUTIONS. 

dining posture, looking seaward, while a schooner, a steamer^ 
a steamship, and miscellaneous aquatic groupings, complete 
the center of the picture. On the right terra firma, the 
theater for a king of railroads, spreads away. At the extreme 
right, corresponding to Neptune, stands the figure of Liberty^ 
while the intermediate space exhibits forests, cultivated fields, 
railroad track with tools, tunnels, switchmen, and dashing 
trains. The whole weighs over fifty tons, and cost half a 
million dollars, which was contributed by New York bankers 
and capitalists. It is an appropriate recognition of the per- 
severance and thrift of a modern Knickerbocker, who, with- 
out patrimony or schools, has carved out his own diploma^ 
and compelled the world to sign it. 



THE MAEKBTS. 



The marketing on Manhattan seems to have been, for 
some years, a system of general huckstering. For the better 
security of seasonable supplies the authorities ordered in 1676, 
that all country people bringing supplies to market should be 
exempt from arrests for debt, and that the Market-house, a 
small building devoted to that use, and the green before the 
fort (the present site of Bowling Green), should be used for the 
city sales. In 1683 markets were appointed to be held three 
times a week, to be opened and closed by ringing a bell. In 
1692, a market-house for meat was ordered at the foot of 
Broad street, and subsequently nearly every slip on the East 
river side, where the city mainly lay at that time, had its mar- 
ket-house. " Bear Market " (Washington), so called from the 
fact that bear meat was fii'st sold in it, was the first on the 
west side. The present structure was erected in 1813, and 
though low, gloomy, and in a decayed condition, has for 
many years been the principal wholesale market of the city. 



THE MARKETS. 213 

The market proper contains five hundred and three stands 
(with many outside), and furnishes employment and subsis- 
tence for about 10,000 persons. Its annual lousiness is be- 
lieved to exceed $100,000,000. The market buildings, num- 
bering fifteen, are judiciously distributed through the city; 
most of them are still ov^^ned by the corporation, and bring 
an annual income of several hundred thousand dollars. 
Several fine market buildings have recently been erected by 
private parties. The Manhattan Market Company, chartered 
a year and a half since, are now erecting the largest and fin- 
est market building yet undertaken on the island. It stands 
on the block between Thirty-fourth and Thirty-fifth streets, 
Eleventh and Twelfth avenues. The main structure, which is 
of iron, stone, and Philadelphia brick, is 800 feet long and 
200 feet deep, and will contain 800 stands. The interior of 
the structure is 80 feet high, well lighted, and if Washington, 
is ever removed, this appears certain to become the principal 
wholesale market of the city. The contractors have agreed 
to complete it by the first of October, 1871. Others are to 
follow under the direction of this company. 




XIII. 
THE CEMETERIES OF NEW YOEK. 

HE bustling glittering cities of the living- 
stand in such close proximity to the silent 
but more populous ones of the dead, that 
this sketch of Manhattan would be quite 
imperfect, were no mention made of the 
places where rest the eight generations 
that have successively peopled the gay metropolis. 

The Bm-ial-places of Manhattan were for many years con- 
nected with the separate churches, and as late as 1822 there 
were twenty-two of these church burying-grounds south of 
the City Hall. In 1794 the Potter's Field was located at the 
junction of the Greenwich and Albany roads. This was at a 
later period removed to what is now AVashington square, 
from whence it was removed to Kandall's, then to Ward's, and 
finally to Hart's Island. The negro burying-ground was 
long at the corner of Broadway and Chambers street, on the 
site now occupied by A. T. Stewart's wholesale store. In 
1729, a Jewish cemetery was laid out near what is now Chat- 
ham square. The land was given by a Mr. Willey of 
London to his three sons, then New York merchants, to be 
held in trust as a place of burial for the Jewish nation 
'•''forever^ But so uncertain are the securities of earth, that the 
place has now long been covered with stores and warehouses. 
In 1813, all burials below Canal street were prohibited. The 
plan of erecting marble cemeteries farther up town was now 
proposed, and two were constructed between Second and 
Third streets, Bowery, and Second avenue, with 234 and 156 
vaults respectively. They were constructed entirely of stone, 
and calculated to receive a large number of bodies. It was 




I 



Li^^. P 



.111' 




li 



THE CEMETERIES OF NEW TOKK. 215 

however, soon discovered that this plan must be a faihire. In 
1842, the plan of rural cemeteries was fully inaugurated by 
the laying out of Greenwood, which had been incorporated 
in 1838. In 1847, a general law was enacted by the Legisla- 
ture, conferring upon voluntary associations the riglit of 
establishing rural cemeteries, which was soon followed by 
the laying out of Cypress Hill, Ever Green, New York Bay, 
Calvary, and others. In 1842, the Trinity corporation pur- 
chased thirty-six acres of ground, on Tenth avenue and One 
Hundred and Fifty-iifth street, of Mr. Carman, for a ceme- 
tery, which is the only one now in use on the island. This 
cemetery has recently been much injured by the laying out 
of the Public Drive, which passes through it, ruining many 
of its vaults, and convincing us that the land should never 
have been devoted to a cemetery. The grounds are richly 
shaded and kept in good cultivation. Here sleep the remains 
of Bishops Waim-ight and Onderdunk, of Philip Livingston, 
one of the signers of the Declaration, of Madame Jumel, 
Aaron Burr's last wife, of Audubon, the renowned naturalist, 
of John Jacob Astor, and many other distinguished per- 
sonages. The vault of President Monroe is seen, though his 
remains were several years since removed to Virginia. 

John J. Cisco, of Wall street, and other living capitalists, 
conscious of coming doom, have here erected granite or mar- 
ble structures for their last earthly homes. Land has now be- 
come very valuable in tJiis locality. The grounds were origi- 
nally obtained for $14,000, but the corporation has refused 
$80,000 for the water front simply. 

In 1851, an ordinance was passed prohibiting all burials on 
the island south of Eighty-sixth street, except in private, 
vaults and cemeteries. 

New York Bay cemetery is situated, as its name implies, 
on the New York Bay, in the State of New Jersey, two and 
one-half miles from the Jersey City ferry. The cemetery 
now comprises about fifty acres of level land, is nearer the 



216 NEW TOEK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS. 

City Hall than any other, and contains the mouldering forms 
of over 50,000 persons. 

Greenwood, the oldest and most noted of all our rural 
cemeteries contains four hundred and thirteen acres of land, 
purchased of over sixty different owners. The grounds are 
situated in Brooklyn on Gowanus heights, about two and a 
half miles from South ferry, the higher portions of which 
were crimsoned with the blood of the slain at the noted bat- 
tle of Long Island, fought August, 1776. 

The surface, graded at immense expense, is beautifully un- 
dulating and diversified, producing constant and gratifying 
changes of scenery. Seventeen miles of broad carriage-roads 
constructed of stone, and covered with gravel, bordered with 
paved gutters, and fifteen miles of foot-patlis, nearly all of 
which are covered with Scrimshaw concrete pavement, free 
from dust, mud, and weeds, conduct the visitor to every part 
of the grounds. The entrance-ways are all elegant, the 
northern, completed in 1863, being the most imposing. Its 
Duter gate, closed only at night, opens on Fifth avenue, and 
is the principal way of access to the vast population of New 
York and Brooklyn. The gateway, reached by an approach, 
graded at great expense, is an elaborate Gothic edifice, mas- 
sively constructed of the best New Jersey sandstone, is 132 
feet long, 40 feet deep, terminating above in three pinnacles, 
the central of which is 106 feet high. The deep triangular 
recesses of the pediments above the gateways are filled on 
both sides with groups of sculpture formed of Nova Scotia 
sandstone, representing the Saviour's entombment and re- 
surrection, the resurrection of the Widow's Son, and the 
raising of Lazarus. Still higher are figures in relief represent- 
ing Faith, Hope, Memory, and Love. A bell tolls with each 
passing procession, and a clock marks the speed with which 
we are gliding to eternity. The grounds are being enclosed 
with an iron fence, and otherwise constantly improved. 
About six thousand are annually interred here, and at the 
close of 1870 the whole number of interments amounted to 



THE CKMETERIES OF NEW TOEK. 217 

150,000. It is the most favorite resort outside of N'ew York, 
its finely wrought vaults and over 2,000 monuments, some of 
which have cost large fortunes, attracting much attention. 
The monument of Charlotte Cauda is perhaps the most noted 
of all, though those of D. H. Lewis, De Witt Clinton, Colonel 
Yosburgh, and others, are very imposing. Here clergymen, 
merchants, bankers, and common laborers find a space and think 
not of the amount of marble that marks their resting-place. 
Mr. Peter Cooper, Eev. II. W. Beecher, and many others, 
have selected the place for their final repose beneath the 
shades of the sighing willows. The receipts last year amount- 
ed to over $250,000, and the expenditures to $247,000. The 
permanent fund for the improvement of the cemetery, aris- 
ing from the sale of lots, legacies, donations, etc., amounts to 
nearly three-quarters of a million, and is certain to be consid- 
erably increased. 

Cypkess Hill cemetery is situated on that elevated ridge 
north of the Brooklyn and Jamaica turnpike, known as the 
"backbone of Long Island." It lies partly in Kings and 
partly in Queens counties, is about five miles from the ferry 
at Peck Slip, and comprises 400 acres. About half of the 
grounds are still covered by a natural forest, and the other 
portions profusely set with trees and shrubbery, thus blend- 
ing witht he wild luxuriance of nature the chaste embellish- 
ments of art. A brick arch, surmounted by a statue of Faith, 
and supported by two beautiful Lodges, forms the fi-ont, or 
southern entrance. The view fi'om the elevated portions of 
this cemetery is very extensive, presenting, besides nearly 
every variety of landscape scenery, a bird's-eye view of the 
surrounding country, and the neighboring cities. Brooklyn, 
New York, Jersey City, the majestic Hudson, and the Pali- 
sades are spread out with panoramic grandeur; farther to 
the north rise the hills of Connecticut, and to the south, far 
as the eye can extend, stretches the broad Atlantic, bounded 
by the horizon. Over 85,000 interments have been made in 
these grounds since 1848. The forms of 4,060 of our brave 



218 NEW YORK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS. 

soldiers lie sleeping here, in a section set apart exclusively 
for them. About 35,000 bodies have also been transferred 
to these grounds, from old burying-grounds in ISTew York 
city and Broolclyn. The Sons of Temperance, the Odd Fel- 
lows, the Masons, and the Metropolitan Police have set 
apart sections for the members of their fraternities. Family 
lots measuring 16 by 25 feet may be secured here on the 
payment of from $125 to §350, according to location. 

The Cemetery of the Evergreens, situated east and about 
three and a half miles from Williamsburgh, covers the wes- 
tern termination of the mid-island range of hills, and affords 
numerous varieties of surface and natural ornament. The 
eye of the visitor is greeted with hills, dells, lakes, lawns, in- 
terspersed with a rich growth of cultivated and forest trees. 
This cemetery, which is also one of the largest, has not yet 
become as noted as the two preceding, but is sure to increase 
in popularity. 

Calvary Cemetery, laid out in August, 1848, and situated 
in Newtown, Long Island, is owned by and devoted exclu- 
sively to the Roman Catholic church. The grounds comprise 
seventy-five acres, and already over 183,000 interments have 
been made. 

Wood Lawn cemetery, situated in Westchester County, eight 
miles north of Harlem Bridge, was incorporated December 29, 
1863, and contains over 300 acres. The late Rev. Absalom 
Peters was the chief agent in the laying out of these beauti- 
ful grounds. The rapid march of the city northward led 
him to seek the establishment of a large cemetery, which 
should be to upper New York and Westchester what Green- 
wood had long been to lower New York and Brooklyn. 
This cemetery is easily reached by the Harlem Railroad. 
It was laid out in 1865, since which over 8,000 interments 
have been made. The grounds are now being rapidly im- 
proved, and the last report showed an increase of 65 per 
cent, over the interments of the previous year. Several other 
cemeteries are also in use. To these silent monumental cities 




TuE Fountain— Uieuiiwood Ceiuetery. 




The Firemens' Monument— Greenwood. 



THE CEMETEKIES OF NEW YORK. 219* 

of the dead, about 25,000 are being annually consigned, 
whose places in the gay and busy world are filled by othei-s, 
who, after a brief and uncertain struggle, yield in turn to the 
great destroyer. An occasional visit to these spots of solemn 
grandeur, linked so closely to our very being, must be at- 
tended with the best results, to a reflective mind. One can- 
not linger amid such scenes, and consider that beneath this 
surface of exquisite adornment moulder the remains of the 
brilliant, the wealthy, the good, and the gay, without having 
his ambitions for worldly advantage greatly sobered, and bis 
whole mind improved. 

" Here are the wise, the gen'rous and the brave ; 
The JTist, the good, the worthless, the profane ; 
The downright clown, and perfectly well-bred ; 
The fool, the churl, the scoundrel, and the mean ; 
The supple statesman, and the patriot stem ; 
The wreck of nations, and the spoUs of time. " 

* The lapse of 60 pages after 319 is accounted for by the omission to 
number the illustrations in their order. 




i 



CHAPTER Y. 

INSTITUTIONS OF NEW YORK ISLAND AND WEST- 
CHESTER COUNTY. 




NEW YORK mSTITUTIOX FOR THE INSTRUCTION OF THE 
DEAF AND DXBIB. 

( Washington Heights, One Hundred and Sixty-second street.) 



'HAT deaf-mutes have existed in the world since the 
early ages, is a fact clearly established by both sacred 
and profane history. Speechlessness appears for the 
most part to have been the result of deafness ; articu- 
lation resulting from imitation, a matter to which the mind 
of the deaf is not naturally directed. For many ages it was 
coutidently believed that these persons were inexorably shut 
off from all social intercourse with their race, and the idea 
of restoring these faculties or of repairing their loss by educa- 
tion seems never to have occurred to the ancients. The civil 
authorities in many instances appear to have openly approved 
of, or connived at, the practice of destroying such children as 
did not bid fair to be of service t<3 the State. If allowed to 
live, they were deprived b}' statute of their inheritance, of all 
right to buy or sell, make a donation or will, and were classed 
with the insane and the idiotic. The ameliorating influences 
of Christianity finally intercepted the blow, and ttiey were no 
longer mm-dered as useless incumbrances of society ; yet 
pitiable indeed was their condition through all the medieval 
ages, locked up to their own untutored musings, and enduring 
the most cruel neglect. In the seventh century John, Bishop 
of Hagulstad, is said to have with much pains taught a deaf- 
mute to speak a few sentences, and in the sixteenth and seven- 
teenth centuries numerous private efforts were made with 
some success. A Spanish monk, Pedro Ponce, who died in 
1584:, was the first teacher of deaf-mutes. Another Spanish 
monk, named Juan Pablo Bonet, published about 1620 the 
first treatise on deaf-mute instruction, and is believed to have 
invented the dactylology, or one-hand alphabet, used so gene- 
rally in France and America. The numerous treatises on the 



282 NEW YORK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS. 

education of deaf-mutes issued in various parts of Europe 
during this century show a general awakening on the subject 
among the learned. Dr. John Wallis, mathematical professor 
at Oxford, deserves the credit of being the first practical in- 
structor of the deaf and dumb in England. He never had a 
large number of pupils, but continued it for nearly fifty years 
with tolerable success. The first school of this kind supported 
by government was established in Leipsic, in 1778, under the 
patronage of the Elector of Saxony, which continues to this 
time. Early in the present century John Braidwood, a mem- 
ber of a family wlio for sixty years had carried on a system 
of instruction for the deaf and dumb in England without dis- 
closing its principles to the public, came to this country and 
attempted the establishment of a school. He was warmly 
supported by several gentlemen of wealth, but the enterprise 
soon failed through his habitual dissi]3ation. 

The year 1816 is memorable for the organization of a so- 
ciety in New York for the instruction of the deaf and dumb. 
Samuel L. Mitchell, LL.D., the Rev. John Stanford, and Dr. 
Samuel Akerly, who at a later period rendered such efiicient 
service in founding the Institution for the Blind, were its 
chief promoters. The wisdom of the undertaking was by 
many questioned, because a similar institution was just then 
being opened at Hartford, one being supposed amply suffi- 
cient for the whole country. An inquiry, however, soon dis- 
closed the fact that over sixty deaf mutes were then living 
in the city of New York, and subsequent investigations 
have proved that while one in twenty-three hundred of the 
general population is blind, one in about two tliousand is 
deaf and dumb. The act of incorporation bears date of 
April 15, 1817, and in the following May the school was 
formally opened in one of the rooms of the City Hall, with 
four scholars. During the first eleven years of its operations 
the society had no building of its own, but in 1829 the school 
was removed to East Fiftieth street, to the grounds now occu- 
pied by Columbia college. The success of the system of in- 
struction led to an annual increase of students, and made 
necessary the enlargement of the building, which was three 
times accomplished during the quarter of a century spent at 
this location. The prudent sagacity of the board of manage- 
ment secured the title of two entire blocks of ground, lying 
between Forty-eighth and Fiftieth streets, Fourth and Fifth 
avenues. This valuable property, purchased at different 



NEW YOKE INSTITUTION FOR THE DEAF AND DUMB. 283 

periods for about $54,000, was afterwards disposed of at about 
$325,000. The rush of the rapidly expanding city now began 
to disturb the operations of the Institution, and the managers 
began to cast about in qnest of more eligible quarters. Fan- 
wood, at Washington Ileights, nine miles north of the City 
Hall, was finally selected, and thirty-seven and one-half acres 
of ground purchased in 1853, at a cost of $115,000. The 
buildings, which are the largest and finest in the world for the 
instruction of the deaf and dumb, cover about two acres, are 
of brick, with basement, copings, and trimmings of granite, and 
have cost several hundred thousand dollars. A mortgage 
of $175,000 has just been removed by the sale of nine and 
one-half acres of the land for $263,000, leaving a balance to 
complete other needed improvements. The front walls, 
which are panneled, are faced with yellow Milwaukie brick, 
to save the expense of painting. The main edifice, which 
contains the apartments for the ofiicers and teachers, the re- 
ception-rooms, ofiices, the library, and mineralogical cabinet, 
etc., is flanked by two vast and well-arranged wings, one of 
which is devoted to the male, and the other to the female 
pupils. A central building, separated in construction from 
the others, but united to them with covered passageways, 
contains in the basement kitchen and appendages, on the 
first floor the dining-room, and on the next the chapel. 
The sexes are carefully separated, and meet only for meals, 
instruction, and divine worship, under the oversight of their 
instructors. The buildings are capable of accommodating over 
five hundred pupils, and are about equal to the demands of 
the deaf and dumb of this State, which are believed to amount 
to about two thousand one hundred of all ages. They occupy 
one of the most commanding locations on the entire island^ 
overlooking the beautiful Hudson, and have been universally 
admired for their beauty and exquisite arrangement. 

This Institution was at first designed for a private charity, 
but the good sense of the public soon awoke to the fact that 
the State owed the means of instruction to all its children, 
whether blind, deaf and dumb, or possessed of all the five 
senses. As these unfortunates are widely scattered, and to 
enjoy the advantages of an institution are compelled to reside 
far from home in an expensive city, it becomes the duty of 
the State to provide for their maintenance during the period of 
their instruction. From these considerations it was early taken 
under State patronage, which has since formed its principal 



284 NEW TOEK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS. 

support. The annual cost of the Institution amounts to about 
$300 per inmate, exclusive of permanent improvements. 
Application for admission as a State pupil must be made to 
the Superintendent of Public Instruction at Albany, accom- 
panied by a certificate from the Overseer of the Poor in the 
town where the applicant resides, certifying that his parents 
or guardian are unable to pay for his board and tuition. 
State pupils must be between the ages of twelve and twenty- 
five. Pupils are admitted at the charge of counties between 
the ages of six and twelve. Pay pupils are also received 
from families of means. The regular course of instruction 
lasts eight years, with three years additional for those selected 
for good conduct and capacity for higher studies. An un- 
taught deaf-mute is the most ignorant creature in the human 
family. To him all the past is a blank, all the present an 
inexplicable mystery, and all the future a profound uncer- 
tainty. He has no proper conceptions of the Supreme Being, 
which affords one of the clearest evidences of the necessity 
of a Divine revelation. There have been three principal 
systems employed in their instruction: 1. Articulation, or 
the theory that articulation is indispensable to the clear com- 
prehension of thought. This system is believed to have been 
founded by Pedro Ponce, long practised by Wallis, Pereira, 
and the Braidwoods, has been for a century the common 
system taught in Germany, but has not been much practised 
in this country until quite recently. 2. Gesticulation, or the 
theory that every idea of which the mind is capable may be 
expressed by signs. This was taught by Sicard, Bebian, and 
others. 3. The American system, which combines the best 
fundamental principles of the two preceding, with practical 
additions. The language of gestures is clearly the only uni- 
versal channel of intelligent communication in the world, and 
savages from all countries have in this way been able to hold 
some conversation. This can be learned by deaf-mutes spon- 
taneously, and in all sj^stems is more or less employed. At 
the New York Institution the beginner, when introduced 
into the class-room, finds placed before him cards containing 
the printed names of objects. Either the object or its picture 
is placed by the side of the card. The teacher points first to 
the name and next to the object, and thus the connection 
between names and things soon becomes familiar. They are 
then taught to spell with their fingers by the Manual Alpha- 
bet a few short words, and the names of familiar objects. 



NEW YOKK INSTITUTION FOK Till: DEAF AND DUMB. 2S5 

When about fifty words have been thus learned, embracing 
all the letters of the alphabet, short plirases containing- an 
adjective and a noun are formed, which they are required to 
write on large stationary slates, placed all around the class- 
rooms, and thus they are adranced until able to transfer their 
knowledge of signs to the printed page. The progress made 
by these hitherto untaught children of silence is surprising, 
and those who complete the full course attain to high scholar- 
ship. The language of signs is much more definite than 
many suppose, and^hese speechless brethren are here taught 
to discern between the things that differ. At a recent exami- 
nation, with no previous intimation, a class was called upon, 
in sign language, to write and explain the difference between 
the nearly synonymous terms of " conceal and dissemble," 
^' antipathy and hatred," " courage and fortitude." In every 
instance the proper English word was instantly written on the 
slate by each member of the class in answer to the sign, and 
the nice distinctions of signification made. Several years 
since the more advanced students organized themselves into 
the *'Fanwood Literary Society," which now numbers over 
one hundred members. The society meets every Saturday 
evening, and is characterized by animated discussions and 
lectures in the ])antomime of the Institution. 

The three last days of August, 1867, will long be remem- 
bered by these silent brethren as the national convention of 
deaf-mutes, held at the New York Institution. Four hun- 
dred of the former pupils of the Institution, and over one 
hundred graduates of others, assembled, and took part in the 
interesting exercises. Seven of these national conventions 
iave now been held. More attention than formerly has 
recently been given to the matter of articulation. This, the 
Principal believes to be an accomplishment, and a matter of 
decided value in certain cases, though of little service to 
most congenital mutes, and a system that can never super- 
sede the more enlarged and cultivated language of signs. 
To keep the Institution, as it has long been, in tlie forefront 
of this benign movement, Mr. Engelsman, a German expert 
in this system of instruction, has been employed, and such 
semi-mutes and others as by experiment exhibit talent for 
irticulation are placed under his instruction. This class at 
present numbers over fifty students. 

A new brick building, one hundred feet by thirty, and three 
stories high, has just been erected for the better accommoda- 



286 NEW YORK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS. 

tion of the mechanical department. In addition to a good 
education, the students, unless wealthy, are taught trades, so 
that maintenance will not be a difficult problem when they 
return to the outside world. Shoe-making, cabinet-making, 
tailoring, dress-making, printing, bookbinding, and engraving, 
have been taught with success, in addition to horticulture 
and gardening. 

Less than twenty per cent, of the whole number, but nearly 
forty per cent, of the adult deaf mutes of the State, marry 
and rear offspring, not more than one in twenty of whom 
inherit the infirmities of their parents. The Institution is 
free from sectarian bigotry, the minds of the pupils being 
wisely directed to the Bible, without which there can be no 
complete culture of mind or heart. Prayer is offered by one 
of the teachers in the sign language every morning and even- 
ing in the chapel before the whole school. On the Sabbath 
a sermon suited to their capacities is delivered in the same 
manner. 

At table, when all are seated, one tap of the drum, the 
vibrations of which none hear but all feel, calls the vast family 
to silence, after which a blessing is invoked with signs by a 
teacher standing in one of the aisles, and at the close of this 
another tap is the signal for turning plates and beginning the 
dinner. 

The sanitary condition of the Institution is all that can be 
secured in our day, less sickness and fewer deaths occurring 
in it than among the more hardy population around it. 

The library contains about two thousand volumes, three 
hundred of which are rare books on deaf-mute instruction. 
About two thousand two hundred pupils have been edu- 
cated since the opening of the Institution. The professors 
have always ranked among the best educated men of the 
State. Half of those now employed are graduates of the 
Institution. Dr. Harvey P. Peet was called to the office of 
Principal in 1831, and filled this position with great ability 
for thirty-six years. He is the author of many of the text- 
books in this and other American institutions. Weary with 
the toil of years, he resigned his position at the close of 1867, 
and was succeeded by his son, Isaac Lewis Peet, A.M., who 
had been the Yice-Principal for fifteen years, and who bids 
fair to attain to the celebrity of his excellent father. 




mSTITUTION FOR THE IMPROVED mSTRUCTION OF DEAF 
MUTES. 

{Broadway, between Forty-fourth and Forty-fiftJh streets. ) 



[IFFERENT systems foi tlie instruction of deaf mutes 
have been adopted in different countries. The French 
have practised upon the sign language, while the Ger- 
mans have long made a specialty of the system of 
articulation. Several years ago, Bernhard Engelsman, a 
learned German skilled in the art of teaching deaf-mutes in 
this latter system, came to New York, and on the organization 
of this Institution was appointed its Principal, and thus became 
the founder of this system of deaf-mute instruction in this 
country. The new Institution was opened March 1, 1867, 
with ten pupils, at No. 134 West Twenty-seventh street. The 
building soon became too small for the increasing number of 
scholars, so that in May, 1868, the school, having nineteen 
pupils, was removed to No. 330 East Fourteenth street. The 
number of students steadily increased, amounting in 1869 to 
about thirty — all the building could accounnodate. The 
society was incorporated under the general act of Legislature 
in 1868, and on the 12th of April, 1870, the Legislature, by 
special act, placed it on a level with the New York Institution 
at Washington Heights, so that indigent students, if they pre- 
fer, may be instructed here, as at the other institution, at State 
expense. The sum of $10,000 was also given by the State for 
the establishment of the Institution, and several thousand had 
previously accumulated in the treasury of the society, from 
the donations of its friends. The demand for increased accom- 
modations led the trustees to lease two large and eligible 
houses on Broadway in the summer of 1870, where the school 
is at present conducted. 

A desire existing in many minds to obtain from the city a 
site on which to erect buildings, a formal application was ac- 
cordingly filed in June, ISTO, with the Commissioners of the 
Sinking Fund of the city of New York, asking a grant of land 
for the pm-pose above named ; and accordingly, on or about 
August 1st, 1S70, the president had the gratification of re- 
ceiving the deed of a grant of land, situated on the westerly 
side of Lexington avenue, and extending from Sixty-seventh 



288 NEW YORK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS. 

to Sixty-eighth streets, a distance of two hundred feet and ten 
inches, being the entire front of a block, consisting of eight 
lots, besides four lots on the rear of these, being two on Sixty- 
seventh and Sixty-eighth streets, respectively, and forming 
one plot, at the annual rental of one dollar, for the period or 
ninety-nine years. " This land to be devoted to the purposes 
of this Institution, and for such purposes only." 

Plain and substantial buildings are to be erected on these 
grounds as soon as possible. 

The Institution is supported and directed by an association 
of several hundred gentlemen, mostly of the Hebrew faith, 
who are annual contributors. On the 15th of July, 1869, Mr. 
Engelsman, who had been engaged for hve years, as Principail, 
by the officers of the society, severed his connection with the 
Institution, and has since connected himself with the New 
York Institution at Washington Heights, carrying the prestige 
of his name and merit, as the chief expert of this system of 
instruction in America, to that old, time-honored college of 
deaf-mutes, the largest and best arranged of its kind in the 
world. The society, however, has not faltered in its enter- 
prise. 

Professor F. A. Rising, A.M., a graduate of "Williams Col- 
lege, who had been employed seven months in the Ohio 
Institution, two years in the New York Institution at Wash- 
ington Heights, and had been for some months the Vice- 
Principal with Mr. Engelsman, was appointed to take charge 
of the Institution. 

He is a young man of talent and energy, entirely devoted 
to his calling ; but it remains to be seen whether, with his 
limited experience in this particular and difficult system of 
instruction, he can successfully compete with those who have 
made it a life-long specialty. Previous to the removal to 
Broadway, the names (;f thirty-four pupils had been on the 
register, about half of w]i(_)m had been boarded in the Insti- 
tution. At their last anniversary, May 11, 1871, the managers 
reported fifty -one pupils in attendance. 




THE NEW YORK INSTITUTION FOR THE BLIND. 



{Ninth avenue and Thirty-fourth street. ) 

A striking exhibition of the wisdom and benevolence of 
the Creator is seen in his raising up, from time to time, agen- 
cies to guard and foster every interest of society. For many 
ages the blind remained wholly untaught, and sat mournfully, 
Bartimeus like, along the crowded thoroughfare of human 
life. Nothing was undertaken in America to ameliorate their 
condition, until within the last half century. Dr. Samuel 
Ackerly, Samuel AVood, and Dr. John D. Ross have the 
honor of being chiefly instrumental in inaugurating a move- 
ment for this long-neglected class, which will crown their 
memories with undying reno\\m. Early in 1831, through 
their influence, a society was organized in jSTew York, for the 
purpose of founding an institution for the education of the 
blind, and on the 21st of April,thesameyear,t]ie State Legis- 
lature passed an act incorporating the society, with the title 
of '\The New York Institution for the Blind." A school with 
six pupils was opened May 19, 1832, at 4T Mercer street, 
under Dr. Russ, which was the first of its kind on the conti- 



290 NEW YORK AND ITS mSTITUTIONS. 

nent. By the aid of fairs and donations, a piece of ground 
and buildings on Eighth avenue were obtained of James 
Boorman, at a nominal rent, with covenant to sell. An in- 
structor in the mechanic arts was procured, and on December 
2d, 1833, their first public exhibition was held in the City Hall. 
The proficiency of the sixteen pupils present, in reading from 
raised letters, their knowledge of geography, arithmetic, of 
music, and the skill of their workmanship in mats, mattresses, 
and baskets, excited great interest. 

In the inception of the movement, the managers only con- 
templated the instruction of the blind of their own city ; but 
as applications continued to pour in from abroad, they soon 
felt the necessity for enlarged and better accommodations. 
The present site of the Institution was obtained of Mr. Boor- 
man at a reduction of $10,000 below its market value. On 
the 30th of April, 1836, $12,000 were given by the State, on 
condition that $8,000 more would be raised by the managers ; 
and in 1839 another grant of $15,000 was made, to assist in 
erecting the buildings. When the site was originally ob- 
tained, it was far outside of the improved portions of the 
city, but is now in the midst of a densely-populated section. 
It is situated between Thirty-third and Thirty-fourth streets, 
fronting on Ninth avenue, is two hundred feet wide and 
eight hundred feet deep. The building was originally a 
three-story, constructed of Sing-Sing marble, strongly but- 
tressed and surmounted with turrets, presenting an imposing 
fa9ade of one hundred and seventy -five feet, with a north and 
a south wing one hundred and twenty-five feet each. The 
building hasbeen greatly improved during the last year by 
the addition of a mansard story, enlarging the accommoda- 
tions, and enhancing its general appearance. 

A broad yard of fine cultivation is spread in front of the 
Institution, and the workshops occupy the rear. The society 
is a private corporation, and elects its board of twenty man- 
agers annually, which are divided into four committees ; one 
on finance ; one on supplies, repairs, and improvements ; one 
on music and instruction ; and one on manufactures. Each 
committee has charge of the department indicated by its 
name, and holds a weekly meeting, while as a board of man- 
agers they meet monthly for the transaction of regular busi- 
ness. The managers serve gratuitously, many giving much 
valuable time to the intei-ests of the Institution. It has never 
been the design of the managers to make tliis a permanent 



NEW YORK INSTITUTION FOR THE BLIND. 291 

^'Horae " or " Asylum" for the blind, nor yet a "Hospital" 
for the treatment of optical diseases, neither is it a Prison 
where persons are involuntarily detained, but emphatically a 
school for instruction, to be entered or abandoned on mutual 
agreement. Only about seventeen per cent, of the blind were 
born without sight, the rest having lost it by disease or acci- 
dent. 

During the thirty-nine years of its operations, the Institu- 
tion has had under its instruction something more than one 
thousand different persons, most of whom have been young. 
On January 1, 1871, its students numbered 129, though 157 
names had been on the roll during the year, none of whom 
had been in the Institution over seven years.^ In 1834 the 
managers began to receive State pupils, ^.<?., the indigent blind, 
who iiave since been educated at the public expense. Only 
those are now received and educated as New York State 
pupils who are residents of the counties of Suffolk, Queens, 
Kings, and New York. Application for admission must be 
made to the Superintendent. Pay pupils are also received 
at $300 per year. About ninety-four per cent, of all received 
have been New York State pupils ; the remaining six per 
cent, have been pay pupils, and those admitted from New 
Jersey. 

The total expenditures of the society during the fii-st thirty- 
eight years amounted to $2,025,000. The managers thank- 
fully acknowledge the generous aid received from the Legis- 
lature, which has amounted to over $20,000 per annum on an 
average ; yet to their credit be it remembered that sixty per 
cent, of all their expenditures has been obtained through their 
own management and liberality. The society was for many 
years encumbered with debt, which was at length removed, 
though the improvements of the last year, amounting to about 
one hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars, have again 
somewhat involved the Institution, which indebtedness the 
managers have secured by mortgaging the property. The 
annual expense of the Institution at present amounts to about 
$45,000, which appears at first view like a large sum ; but 
when we consider the unavoidable expenditures of its triple 
instruction departments, literary, musical, and industrial, the 
extra service necessary to care for so many who walk in per- 
petual darkness, and*^ the wastes of material in their in- 
struction, our opinions are greatly modified. Books for the 



292 NEW YORK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS. 

blind are expensive. The American Bible Society furnishes 
a Bible to those who have sight for forty-five cents, but the 
same society charges, for the cheapest Bible for the blind, $32. 

A map of the United States, suited to an ordinary school- 
room, may be obtained for $3 or $4 ; but one of the kind 
adapted to the blind costs $75 ; and so on to the end of the 
chapter. 

Books, however costly, are required in all branches of study. 
The literary department embraces a thorough English course^ 
including higher mathematics, philosophy, chemistry, history, 
etc. 

Particular attention is given to music, in which the blind 
often excel. In the Industrial department, mat, broom, and 
mattress making, and many kinds of fancy work, are taught. 
Much material is unavoidably wasted in the workshop^ 
where so many clumsy fingers must feel their way to knowl- 
edge and usefulness. Tlie course of instruction pursued by 
each pupil is the one for which he appears to be best 
adapted. Some pass through all three departments, others 
but one. The most gratifying results have crowned the 
thoughtful endeavors of this benevolent association. It ha& 
supplied the means of culture, of subsistence, in some cases 
of affluence and of great usefulness, to a large portion of the 
community who otlierwise must have remained a burden to- 
themselves and their friends. Among the students of 
former years may now be numbered merchants, manu- 
facturers, life and tire insurance agents, organists, teachers^ 
farmers, and clergymen. 

During the last two years, the use of the sewing machine 
has been introduced among the girls, some of wliom have 
already proved tliemselves adepts in its management, per- 
forming the finest and most difficult tasks with great facility. 
Every encouragement to industry is afforded. As soon as 
one becomes a successful workman, he receives some wages, 
when he is encouraged to open an account witli a saving 
bank, which many have done. The last year of their stay, 
they receive full journeyman's wages for all they do, to 
enable them to start business for themselves when they 
return to the outside world. 

Tlie Institution is under Protestant management, but per- 
sons of any creed are received, without designedly interfering 
with their religious faith. About one-third of the teachers 
in the Institution are blind, and have been educated within. 



BLOOMINGDALE ASYLUM FOR THE INSANE. 293- 

its walls. Among the immber is Mr. Stephen Babcock, who 
is a cultivated Christian gentleman. The principal difficulty in 
the matter of educating the blind has been in the lack of a 
system of writing and printing adapted to the touch of all. 
Carefully compiled statistics show that, with the line-sign 
system mostly employed in this country, not more than forty- 
eight per cent, of the blind pupils have ever been able to read 
with tolerable facility. The Superintendent of the IS'ew York 
Institution, Mr. William B. Wait, has had this matter for sev- 
eral years under examination, and after the most thorough 
analysis of the principles of the language, and of the wants 
and capacities of the blind, has finally invented, and intro- 
duced into his school, a new point-sign system, which all can 
readily learn, which may be written by the blind, and which 
will greatly aid in their education. 

At a convention of Superintendents of the various Insti- 
tutions for the blind in the United States, held in Indianapolis 
in August, 1871, this system, ^fter thorough discussion, was 
unanimously adopted as the system of point writing and 
printing for all the American Institutions. Mr. Wait is now 
engaged in adapting the system to the writing of music. 




*vS^^% 



BLOOMINGDALE ASYLUM FOR THE INSANE. 



AMONG all the diseases that afflict our fallen world, 
none is so dreadful as insanity. The wretched maniac not 
•only suffers the waste and collapse of his physical organism, 
but is often tortured with the greatest conceivable agonies 
of mind. We can trace this disease back to the early 
ages. The Israelites were threatened with madness if they 
disobeyed the Divine command. — Deut. xxviii. 28. David 
feigned madness when he visited Achisli. Nebuchadnezzar 
lost his reason ; and Jesus of Nazareth wrought many miracles 
on the insane. The causes of insanity are various. Nearly 
one-third of all the insanity in the world is hereditary. The 
exciting causes from whence much of it springs are both 
physical and moral. In France the largest number of cases 
by far are said to result from moral excitement, but in 
England and the United States, from physical. Insanity, to 
a great degree, is an evil attending high civilization. Dr. 
Livingstone found but one or two instances of it among all 
the African tribes he visited, but one of the Bakwains, who 
was to accompany him to Europe, became insane from the 
ihrono; of new ideas that entered his mind, and committed 



BLOO:vnNGDALE ASYLUM FOR THE IKSANE. 295 

suicide. Insanity was a rare thing in Cliina under a galling 
despotism, but since the rebellion it is said to have much 
increased. In India and Japan there are few lunatics. In 
Italy, Austria, and Spain, less than in the more enlightened 
countries of Europe. In France one in a thousand is insane, 
in England one in seven hundred and eighty-three, in Scot- 
land one in five hundred and sixty-three, in the United 
States one in seven Imndred and fifty. These facts do not 
argue in favor of ignorance and despotism, but of a more 
serious attention and conformity to the established conditions 
of life and healthy activity. 

The Bloomin^dale Asylum for the Insane is a branch of 
the New York Hospital. The old South Hospital, erected in 
1806, was for fifteen years wholly devoted to the insane. 
The Legislature assisted in the organization of this branch of 
the hospital from the first, and in 1816 increased the annual 
appropriation to $22,500, on condition that the treatment of 
the various forms and degrees of in&anity should be con- 
tinued. 

The propriety of removmg the insane to a more quiet 
retreat than could be afforded in a great city was early felt 
by the " governors," and a committee to select a suitable loca- 
tion was appointed. The purchase of the present site and 
grounds, consisting of forty-five acres, was early recom- 
mended. Some considered the land at Bloomingdale too 
remote from the city, and the attention of the committee 
was called to several other sites ; but, after examining each, 
they adhered to their original recommendation, saying that 
within forty years from that time it would be rather wished 
that the establishment were at a greater distance from the 
centre of population, a prediction that has been literally 
fulfilled. The Hospital at that early day was managed by a 
board of liberal and large-minded governors, who, without 
established precedents to guide them in their difficult under- 
taking, founded an institution for the insane, which, in its 
appointments and treatment, was far in advance of any in 
this, or in any other country. The Institution is situated on 
^ne Hundred and Seventeenth street, between Tenth and 
Eleventh avenues, seven miles north of the City Hall. The 
main edifice, capable of accommodating seventy-five patients, 
was completed and ready for the reception of inmates in 
June, 1821, and was at that time the finest building of its 
kind in the world. The "governors" resolved to give the 



zyb NEW YOKE AND ITS INSTITUTIONS. 

Asylum the appearance of a palace rather than a jail, and 
contracted to have the walls of marble, but, failing to obtain 
this, hewn brown stone was substituted. The ceilings are 
high, the stories furnislied with ample corridoi-s, the window 
frames are of iron, ingeniously concealed, the apartments 
spacious and exquisitely furnished with every comfort of 
the best-regulated home. Books, papei'S, pictures, music, 
indeed, everything calculated to awaken lofty and pleasant 
sentiments, are collected and grouped together in the happiest 
manner in this building. Lectures and exhibitions are at 
times added. The inmates are not closely confined here, as 
only the quiet and convalescent remain in this building. 
The edifice contains also the apartments for the warden and 
assistants, the reception and reading rooms, which are as 
quiet as if no lunatic were on the premises. A building for 
the more violent of the male sex was erected in 1830, at 
some distance to the north-west of the main edifice, and in 
1837 another for females was added, situated in an opposite 
direction from the main building. These were originally 
sixty by forty feet, three stories high, constructed of brick, 
but were in 1854 much enlarged and improved. The orig- 
inal cost of the property somewhat exceeded $250,000. The 
laundry is a separate building, seventy-five by forty feet, and 
three stories high. The wasliing is performed with machin- 
ery in the lower story, the second floor contains drying, 
ironing, and store rooms, and the third the dormitories for 
the domestics. The Asylum is capable of accommodating with- 
out undue crowding, which is never resorted to, about one 
hundred and seventy inmates, and is always full. The 
patients are classified and separated according to the form 
their mental ailments have assumed, whether monomania, 
mania, dementia, idiotism, or delirium a potu. Harsh treat- 
ment is never resorted to, and the appearance of the largest 
liberty is granted all except the most violent. The general 
h-eatment is arranged so as to recover from physical disease 
when necessary, and restore mental self-control by dissolving 
all morbid associations. 

A part of the grounds is devoted to gardening, and a great 
variety of trees and ornamental slirubbery adorn the premises, 
making them a terrestrial paradise during the sultry season. 
The buildings are surrounded with separate and appropriate 
yards, where the patients enjoy prolonged out-door recreation 
during pleasant weather, without destroying the distinctions 



BLOOMIXGDALE ASYLUM FOR TnE ESTSANE. 297 

established in their medical classification. Religious sei-vices 
are conducted every Sabbath by the chaplain, and are attended 
by many of the patients. The warden and matron appointed 
by the " governors " have charge of the buildings, supplies, 
kitchen, servants, etc. The superior officer of the Asylum is, 
however, the resident physician, who is required to be a 
married man, reside on the premises, give his undivided 
attention to the Institution, and who is solely responsible for 
the treatment of the patients. Patients are received from 
any part of the State, on such couditions as can be agreed 
upon, from eight to thirty dollars per week being required, 
according to their circumstances, three months' board being 
required in advance. The expense of conducting the Institu- 
tion the last year was $108,736, and the receipts from the 
patients $107,852. The laying out of the Boulevard, which 
has become the great pleasure drive of the island, passing 
within a hundred and twenty feet of the Men's Lodge, where 
the most disturbed are domiciled, has laid upon the society the, 
necessity of removing the Asylum to a more retired location. 
The experienced physician, D. Tilten Brown, who has been 
connected with the establishment since 1852, has recom- 
mended that the new Institution be located where it can re- 
main undisturbed by any large settlement for at least fifty 
years ; that such ample grounds be secured that fifty acres 
may be appropriated for the exercise of each sex, leaving 
sufficient for gardening and farming purposes, and a still 
further extension for long walks and drives on the asylum 
property alone. He further recommended that the premises 
be not only supplied with an abundance of good water, but 
be as beautiful in their location and surroundings as could 
be obtained. The " governors" have recently purchased nearly 
three hundred acres of land at White Plains, with a view of 
erecting at no distant day at that place, unless a more eligible 
plot can be procured, large and commodious buildings, in 
keepino- with the most advanced theories of treatment in this 
age. It will probably take a number of years, however, to 
remove the Asylum. The whole number of inmates under 
treatment during a year average from 275 to 335, from fifty 
to eighty of whom are said to recover ; from thirty -five to 
fifty are pronounced " improved ; " a smaller number are 
returned as " not imjprox'ed ; " and twenty-five or thirty die. 
The largest number are females, and the majority of all received 
between the ages of twenty and thirty years, after which the 



298 NEW TOKK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS. 

number decreases with every decade up to eighty years. 
Early admission into an asylum is considered desirable, afford- 
ing not only physical safety to the patient and his family, 
but greater probability of permanent recovery. The presence 
of relatives often greatly irritates the poor sufferer, enforced 
submission always proves sadly injurious, and but few possess 
the mental and moral faculties to successfully control the 
insane. The undertaking is the most difficult and dangerous 
in the world, requiring great sagacity, skill, and delicacy of 
treatment. 




THE NEW YORK ORPHAN ASYLUM. 



" The Orphan Asylum Society in the city of New York " is 
the oldest and one of the best endowed of its class in the 
United States. Mrs. Joanna Bethnne was the original ])ro- 
poser of its plan, and has been pronounced the mother of 
the institution. This lady, before the Orphan House was 
planned, had been deeply interested in a society that cared 
for widows and young children, and as these widows died 
leaving helpless little ones, her kind heart often grieved that 
these, by rule, should be excluded from the assistance of the 
society, which they now more than ever reqnired. Hence the 
step between a widows' society and an orphan asylum Ijecame 
to her natural and necessary. The first call for the Orphan 
Asylum Society was from the pen of Mr. Divie Bethune, 
written at tlie request of his wife. Mrs. Bethune continued 
her earnest exertions in behalf of the society for more than 
fifty-four years, serving successively as trustee, treasurer, 
second directress, and first directress. Ske died in peace 
July 28, 1S60, aged ninety-two years. 

The act of incorporation passed the Legislature April T, 
1807, granting privilege to hold personal and real estate to 



300 NEW YORK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS. 

the amount of $100,t^00, for the legitimate uses of the society. 
The power to hind out children was granted by a special act 
passed February 10, 1809, and in 1811 an act was passed 
granting the society $.'>00 per annum from the fund arising 
from auction duties. This annuity was continued forty-two 
years, but was discontiiiued in 1853. The original charter 
was limited to twenty-one years, and has since been twice 
renewed. The business of the society is conducted by a 
board of (}a<\y) trustees, annually elected by the society, of 
which all ladies contributing one dollar and fifty cents per 
year are members. The operations of the society began in 
a small hired house in Raisin street, and in April, 1807, the 
society held its annual meeting in the City Hotel, on Broad- 
way. ^ The orphan children, more tlian twenty in number, 
were presented to the view of the public on this occasion, 
and an appeal made for means to provide enlarged accom- 
modations. The public generously responded, four lots of 
ground in Greenwich were purchased, and the same year a 
brick building fifty feet square, and designed to accommodate 
nearly two hundred cliildren, was completed, at an expense 
of $15,000. Mr. Philip Jacobs bequeathed to the society two 
houses and lots on Broadway, a house and lot in Warren 
street, one in Pearl street, and a tract of wild land, the annual 
income of all amounting to about $4,000. The litigation 
attending the acquisition of tliis property cost $15,000, but 
in 1833 the court confirmed the bequest, which laid the 
foundation of the permanent prosperity of the society, and 
forms still the basis of its invested resources. The devasta- 
tion produced by the cholera in 1834, which swept away the 
female teacher and a number of the children, induced the 
society to abandon the city and build an asylum in the 
country. Nine and a quarter acres of land were purchased 
west of Broadway, between Seventy-third and Seventy-fourth 
streets, and the corner-stone of the new edifice laid with ap- 
propriate services June 6, 1836. 

The building was one hundred and twenty by sixty feet, 
\\ ith three stories and basement, and cost $45,000. In 1855 
two spacious wings, corresponding in size and style with the 
first building, were added at a cost of $40,000, affording ac- 
commodations for more than have ever been received. The 
buildings are of brick, stuccoed in imitation of yellow 
marble ; the yards and play -grounds are ample ; the location 



THE NEW YORK ORPHAN ASTLUil. 301 

being on high ground, and near the Hudson, is one of the 
linest on the island. 

The hmd purchased for $17,500, with the growth of tlie 
<;ity and the laying out of the new Public I)rive, has in- 
<jreased iu value to at least a million, and the managers lia"\-e 
recently sold three and a half acres of their grounds for the 
handsome sum of $300,000. 

The society has purchased thirty-seven acres of laud at 
Hastings, and contemplates the removal of the Asylum to 
that place at no very distant day. 

Orphan children under ten years of age are admitted from 
any locality ; they ai-e clothed, boarded, educated, and 
trained to habits of industry, the girls in the several depart- 
ments of the house, and the boys in the garden and yard. 
]^onc admitted are allowed to depart until the}' have spent 
one year in the Institution, and have made some progress in 
reading, writing, and arithmetic. Children are indentured 
to married persons, keeping house in the State of New York, 
regular attendants of JProtestant ch^irches, and duly recom- 
mended by their pastors. 

During the first thirty years of its existence the society re- 
ceived 931, and had an annual average of 170 inmates, 
which were supported at a trifle less than $4:2 per annum 
for each child. Its family has at no time since much ex- 
ceeded two hundred, but the doors of the Asylum have ne^^er 
been closed against a proper applicant. One room is devoted 
to infant orphan children, who are reared with great care- 
fulness. No death has occurred in the Asylum in tln-ee years. 
The invested funds of the society bringing an income of 
about $10,000, less than half the annual expense of the Insti- 
tution, while on the one hand a blessing, have nevertheless 
proved a bar to shut away the donations of the benevolent, 
leaving the managers to annually struggle with their expendi- 
tures. The Superintendent, Mr. Charles S. Pell, is an educated 
gentleman, formerly principal of Public School No. 8, New 
York city, and has successfully conducted the affairs of the 
Asylum for twenty years. 




COLORED ORPHAN ASYLUM. 
{One Hundred and Forty-third street and Tenth avenue.) 

This Institution was the first established in the city for the 
relief of the colored people, who had been for ages cruslied 
under the tyranny of caste, and excluded from nearly every 
public and private charity. But the period arrived for a 
change in public sentiment. Tlie emancipation of the colored 
population in the West Indies was followed by marked results 
in this country. About 1833 Miss Anna IL Shotwell and 
Miss Mary Murray boldly took in liand the matter of estab- 
lishing a Home for colored cliildren. Their earnest and 
continued appeals to the public secured in small sums at 
length about two thousand dollars, and in 1836 a board of 
twenty-two lady managers were elected, with an advisory 
committee of five gentlemen.- A constitution was adopted, 
and the enterprise fully launched, under the title of the 
'' Association for the Benefit of Colored Orphans." But so 
violent was the prejudice against the colored race, that three 
long months were spent in a fruitless search for a suitable 
building. Property-owners could be induced, on no conditions, 
to lease an empty dwelling for such uses. A small frame 
cottage was at length purchased on Twelfth street for $9,(X)0, 



COLORED ORPHAN ASYLUM. 



303 



"!;vliich the friends of the enterprise furnished with their half- 
•^voru furnitui-e, a mortgage of $6,000 remaining for some 
Tears on the property. In 1838 the society was "duly incor- 
porated by act of Legislature. The building purchased soon 
proved too small, and after repeated applications to the Com- 
mon Council, a grant of sixteen city lots on Fifth avenue, be- 
tween Forty-third and Forty- fourth streets, was made, to 
w'hich several were subsequently added by purchase, and a 
suitable edifice erected at an expense of $7,000. Here the 
operations of the society were successfully conducted for six- 
teen years, amid the waning prejudices of the people. But 
one last great storm gathered and finally broke upon this 
excellent Institution. The frenzied rioters of July, 1863, burst 
open its doors, heaped together its light furniture, which was 
saturated with highly inflammable material, and despite the 
efforts of a few brave friends to save it, was set on fire, and 
in twenty minutes the edifice was a smoking ruin. Thirty 
minutes previous to their entrance the matron had no appre- 
hensions of danger. The Asylum at that time contained 233 
children, who under the prudent management of the officers 
of the Institution, and covered by a special providence, nearly 
as striking as when the Hebrews were in the furnace, were 
marclied through the midst of this screeching mob to the 
station-house in Thirty-fifth street, without receiving the 
slightest harm. Here they remained three days, crowded 
together to make place for the bleeding, groaning ruftians 
.arrested by the policemen. When order was again restored, the 
children, under a strong guard, were removed to the almshouse 
-on Blackwell's Island. "When the children were marched out 
of their loved Asylum, so soon to be destroyed, a little girl 
picked up the large family Bible in the dining-room, from 
which she had been accustomed to hear read twice each day 
tliose lessons of Heavenly wisdom, and putting it under her 
arm she carried it to the station-house, and thence to Black- 
well's Island. The apparel of the children, the clothing and 
private effects of the officers and teachers, and the records 
of the society, kept by the same secretary for twenty -seven 
years, were nearly all destroyed. 

The managers now wisely resolved to remove the institu- 
tion to a more retired locality. Their grounds, with the rapid 
growth of the city, had now greatly increased in value, which 
they were enabled to sell for $175,000 ; and a beautiful plot of 
ground, at One Hundred and Forty-third street and Tenth ave- 



304 NEW YORK AXD ITS INSTITUTIONS. 

nue, was purchased for $45,000. The children remained in the 
almshouse, attended by their officers and teachers, receiving 
such instruction as the circumstances would admit, from Jul y 
16, to October 19, 1S63, when they were removed to tlie 
Fields mansion, now the Home and School for Soldiers' Chil 
dren, at "Washington Heights. A large bowling-alley wa? 
converted into a school-room, and the main edifice extensively 
repaired. The corner-stone of their new Asylum was laid 
in August, 1867, and the buildings completed in September, 
1868. They are constructed of brick, in the Rhenish order, 
three stories with basement, with a frontage of two hun- 
dred and thirty-four feet, and a depth of one hundred and 
twenty-five feet, surmounted with three unique, octagonal 
towers, and have accommodations for over three hundred 
children. The first floor contains reception-room, parloi", 
private apartments for officers, infant class-room, and chapel,, 
which is very large and beautiful, used during the week for 
the general school-room for the larger scholars. Adjoining 
is a spacious veranda, the favorite resort of the cliildren 
during brief intermissions. Immediately over the chapel, on 
the west side of the building, is the principal dormitory for 
the girls, containing eighty-six tidy single beds. Two otlier 
apartments are set apart for the same use for the girls, and 
two for the boys. Tlie buildings are for the most part fire- 
proof, the stairs being constructed with stone steps, and part 
of the M'indows furnislied with sheet-iron blinds. The wash- 
ing, drying, cooking, and pumping are pei-fonned with steam, 
and the edifice lieated with the same element. The parlor 
very appropriately contains the picture of Miss Shotwell, its 
principal foundress. 

The fiends who meanly sought the destruction of the Insti- 
tution had no conceptions of the* splendid future certain to 
dawn upon the enterprise. Driven from an edifice of $7,000, 
they soon entered one worth $130,000. " The memory of the 
just is blessed; but tlie name of the wicked shall rot." The 
cosey wood cottage formerly occupied by the owner of the 
premises still stands, and is occupied as an infirmary. The 
ample lawns, yet unadorned by art, are excpiisitely beautiful,, 
the architecture faultless in style and proportions, the view 
from the observatory so rich and extensive that one cannot 
visit this peerless place, and contemplate its saintly charities,, 
without feeling himself improved and drawn perceptibl\~ 
nearer to Heaven. 



PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL ORPHAN HOME AND ASYLUM. 305 

The Asylum contains at this writing 282 children, about 
1,650 having been received since its opening, June 9, 
1837. Children are received between the ages of two and 
ten years, and are retained until they complete their twelfth 
year, when they are apprenticed, generally to farmers. Much 
of the lighter work of the establishment is performed by the 
older girls, and a number are employed permanently in 
the sewing-room, and in special service in different parts of 
the house. The board of children received and again with- 
drawn by their parents is placed at the moderate rate of 
seventy-five cents per week. The schools are well conducted, 
and the usual per capita appropriation from the State educa- 
tional fund is received. An appropriation of $25,000 was re- 
ceived from the Legislature in 1869, and the sum of $6,570 
from the Commissioners of Charities and Corrections. The 
annual expenses of the Institution exceed $30,000. Service is 
conducted every Sabbath, generally by a city missionary. The 
matron. Miss Jane McClellan, has had charge of the Asylum 
many years, and merits special credit for the tidy and sys- 
tematic arrangement of all its departments. 



ORPHAN HOME AND ASYLUM OF THE PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL 
CHURCH IN NEW YORK. 

^i-MT society having control of this Institution was or- 
--iJ^ ganized in 1851, its affairs being under the direction 
»^^^ of a board of trustees and managers, composed of 
ladies representing nearly every Episcopal church in 
the city of New York. There is, as usual, an advisory com- 
mittee of gentlemen, to whom in cases of difficulty they 
appeal. Any member of the Protestant Episcopal chui-ch may 
become an annual member by the payment of three dollars, 
or a life member on the payment of fifty dollars at one time. 
The object of the Asylum is the care, support, and religious 
training of orphans and half-orphans. Children are received 
into the Institution between the ages of three and eight years 
only, and may be retained, the boys until they are twelve, and 
the girls until they are fourteen. Children taken without 
charge must be entirely given up to the Institution, otherwise 



30G NEW YORK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS. 

the sura of seventy-five cents per week is cliarged for their 
support. The committee on receiving and dismissing chil- 
dren meets every Friday, to whom application may be made ; 
but their by-laws declare that admissions shall be regulated 
invariably by the amount of funds in hand, or by anticipated 
receipts that are reasonably certain, so that the finances may 
never be embarrassed. Children are indentured, or adopted 
only to married persons keeping house, members and regular 
attendants of the Protestant Episcopal church, and recom- 
mended by their pastor. Girls are not bound in families 
where there are apprentices, and neither boys nor girls are 
permitted to go to a tavern, a boarding-house, or where 
liquors are sold. Children are taken from the Institution on 
trial for three months, when, if the employer is dissatisfied, 
he is allowed to choose again, or if the child has just cause 
of complaint it may be recalled. All indentures expire with 
the eighteenth year of the child, and none are allowed to go 
so far from the city that some one of the mana^rs cannot 
visit them annually. The Asylum stands on Forty-ninth 
street, between Lexington and Fourth avenues, is two stories 
high, besides basement and attic, is in the Gothic order, and 
has accommodations for one hundred and sixty-five children. 
In 1S68 a rear wing, containing an infirmary, was added to 
the main building, at an expense of $32,000, which contrib- 
uted greatly to the safety of the children and the convenience 
of the Home. The Institution has, besides the matron and 
three female teachers, a nurse and six domestics. The chil- 
dren number, on an average, from one hundred and forty to 
one hundred and sixty ; and the Institution is supported at an 
annual expense, exclusive of repairs, of about §15,000. Only 
two deaths have occurred in the Institution during the last 
four years. A religious school, similar to Sunday schools, is 
conducted iti the Institution every Friday, many young ladies 
consenting to teach on that day, and one of the pastors in the 
city devotes some time to catechising the children. In 1SG8, 
the heart of the matron was made glad in receiving the 
sacrament of the Lord's Supper from one once an orphan boy 
in the Asylum. It has long been the custom of the managers 
to meet at the Home every Friday, to cut and make gar- 
ments for the children. Many friends of the society have 
gladly attended tliese meetings, furnishing as they do an 
opportunity to gratify that yearning desire in every true 
woman's heart, to minister to the helpless and suffering. 



PKOTFiSTANT EPISCOPAL ORPHAN HOME AND ASYLUM. 307 

This is tlie only orphan house of the denomination in the 
city, and has completed its nineteenth year without receiving 
anything from the city authorities, and but a small amount 
from the State. Its permanent fund from legacies is rapidly 
increasing, and now amounts to forty-four thousand dollars. 




THE SHELTERING ARMS. 



{ManJmttanviUe.) 

INSTITUTIONS f(^r the relief of orphans, half -orphans, 
the aged, sick, and blind, have greatly mnltiplied in New 
York during the last fifty years ; yet a few observing minds 
discovered that there still existed a large and helpless class 
in the community, to whom no door of generous hospi- 
tality was open. Each Institution being established for 
the relief of a single class, always sufiiciently numerous to 
tax it to its utmost, others, equally needy and worthy, were 
necessarily excluded. The asylum for the blind, and the 
one for the deaf-mute, received inmates at a certain age, 
but whei-e were the poor homeless children to spend their 
earlier years ? There were hospitals for sick and crippled 
children, as long as surgeons pronounced them curable, but 
incurables could not be admitted. Some institutions received 
half-orphans, or poor children, free, on condition that they 
were surrendered to the institution ; l)ut many parents, in 
pressing need of temjjorary relief, were unwilling to irrevo- 
cably surrender their children. The half-orphan asylum could 
not receive the children of the father deserted by his wife, of 
the wife abandoned by her husband, nor of parents who were 
both sick, in the hospital. These considerations led to the 
founding of the Sheltering Arms, an institution which pro- 
posed to extend the arm of relief and defence to multitudes 
nut hitherto provided for. When the enterj>rise was first sug- 



THE SHELTERING ARMS. 309' 

gested, some regarded it as a useless undertaking, and suo-- 
gested that it would be difficult to find children not liither?o 
provided for, while others, more considerate, thought it too 
vast, if not quite Utopian. The society having been organ- 
ized, the President, Rev. Thos. M. Peters, D.D., generously 
offered his own house, situated at the corner of One Hun- 
dredth street and Broadway, free of rent for ten years, which 
was opened on the 6th of October, 1864, and forty children, 
all the building could accommodate, immediately received. 
The first child received in anticipation of opening the Insti- 
tution, was a little deserted blind girl of four or five years, 
and soon after, a helpless crippled boy, unable to gain admit- 
tance into any hospital, because incurable, was received, and 
after seventeen months, flew away to that land where the 
inhabitants no more say, " I am sick." The operations of 
the first eighteen months proved two things. First, that 
their accommodations were inadequate to the demands made 
upon them; and secondly, that the genercsity of the public 
would support a larger family.- In 1866^ another building 
was erected by the trustees, at an exj^ense of $10,000 ; the 
mimber of children increased to ninety, and the annual ex- 
penses of the Institution from $6,000 to $11,000. But a 
new difficulty soon confronted them. The Boulevard, in its 
wide sweep up the island, cut through their grounds, taking 
nine of their twenty-two lots, leaving the remainder in two- 
pieces, and too small for their use. After examining several 
pieces of property, the trustees purchased an acre of ground, 
situated on One Hundred and Twenty-ninth street and Tenth 
avenue, in what is called Manhattan ville. Their plan of 
building is partly modeled after the Tough house of Wichern, 
near Hamburg, on the Horn, i.e., to erect cottages, so that the 
children may be divided into families of equal number ; but 
the great value of ground on Manhattan has compelled 
them to unite several under one roof, instead of scattering 
them around the field as at Hamburg. Their new building 
was completed, and the cl ildren removed to it on the 5th of 
February, 1870. '= It is a two-story brick, with basement and 
attic, in the Gothic order, with slated French roof, and is com- 
posed of five sections. The central portion, rising a little 
above the rest, is thirty-six by forty- seven feet, and contains 
office, parlor, kitchen, linen and work rooms, infirmary, and 
all necessary sleeping apartments for adults. The two wings 
are each fifty by forty feet ; each contains two cottages, witli 



-310 NEW YORK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS. 

I 

accommodations for thirty children each, affording space for 
one hundred and twenty in all. Each cottage contains its 
separate dining-room, play-room, M-ash-room, and dormitory. 
An appeal was made for $5,000 donations, the amount neces- 
sary to erect a cottage, the name of the donor to be given to 
the building. Mrs. Peter Cooper generously furnished the 
sura to erect a cottage for girls ; Mr. John D. Wolfe, one for 
boys ; another friend gave the amount for the third, and the 
Ladies' Association have undertaken to pay for the fourth. 
The school-house is a separate building. The ground and 
buildings have thus far cost about $75,000, and the trustees 
purpose to duplicate these buildings, as soon as their finances 
will admit, and increase the number of inmates to about three 
hundred. A small Episcopal church stands in the rear of the 
Institution on the adjoining street, where the children attend 
service. The president of the society is an Episcopal clergy- 
man ; representatives of other denominations are, however, in 
its board of management. Children are received without re- 
gard to creed or nationality, and the managers acknowledge 
donations from Jews, Gentiles, and all denominations of 
Christians. The internal management of the Institution was, 
from its commencement until the spring of 1870, committed 
to the Sisterhood of St. Mary, of the Protestant Episcopal 
Church. Six of them took charge of the four families of 
■children, and found time to write articles for their monthly 
paper, conduct fairs, collect subscriptions, and attend to sun- 
dry other matters. Their habit strikingly resembled that 
worn by the orders of the Romish faith, and, as they were be- 
lieved by many to be too closely allied to them in many points 
of faith and practice, it was considered best by the board of 
management to remove them from the Institution. Miss 
Sarah S. Richmond, an estimable lady of piety and culture, 
has at present the charge of its internal management, and is 
assisted by hired help. These lady managers are deserving of 
great credit for the sacrifice and toil bestowed on these home- 
less children, many of whom are '* rougli casts of unculti- 
vated humanity," but are soon subdued by gentle treatment 
and faithful instruction. The Institution has, at this writing, 
one hundred and twenty-five children, ten of whom are in- 
curable invalids who could gain access to no other institution. 
Children are received at any age, from infancy to fourteen 
3^ears, subject to the call of their parents or relatives ; but if 
left to the managers, are retained until farther advanced in 



THE BIIELTERING ARMS. 311 

years than iu most institutions, that their habits of virtue may 
be more thoroughly conlirmech In addition to an Enghsli 
education, they are to be taught trades as far as possible. 
Board is charged of such as are able to pay, but all received 
from this source has not exceeded one-sixth of the current 
expenses of the- Institution in any year. The State has con- 
tributed some small sums to the Institution ; but the city au- 
thorities, giving unnumbered tliousands to others, have not 
been importuned" by the Sheltering Arms to impose heavy 
burdens on the public for its support. Their president and 
manao-ers have taken the wise, Christian, and statesman-like 
view, that private charitable corporations should be supported 
by those especially interested, and that public officials should 
not be invoked to compulsorily draw supplies from those 
who might disapprove of their principles or practices. All 
honor to the Sheltering Arms for this most wholesome 
example, so eminently worthy of imitation. They have 
wisely sought, by the dissemination of knowledge relating to 
their work, to develop a charity in their friends, affording 
abundant supplies not easily affected by the caprices of leg- 
islation. The undertaking of the society has thus far proved! 
a magnificent success. 

♦ The policy has been somewhat changed since writing the above. 





ROJIAX CATIIOLIU OKl'IIAN ASYLUM, BOYS' BUILDINGS, FIl'TII AVENUE. 



THE ROMAN CATHOLIC ORPHAN ASYLUM. 



{Corner Mott and Prince streets.) 

In April, 1817, the " Roman Catholic Benevolent Society " 
was incorporated by act of Legislature, the Right Rev. 
Bishop Connolly being its first president. 

The Institution for several years consisted of poor wooden 
structures located at what is now Prince street, but was at 
that time far out of the city. The present edifice, at the cor- 
ner of Mott and Prince streets, stands on the original site, and 
was erected in 1825. It is a large four-story brick, with 
acconnnodations for three hundred and fifty children It 
now stands in the midst of a dense population, and is occu- 
pied by about two hundred of the larger girls, who are em- 
ployed in needle and laundry work, and other industrial 
pursuits. These arc adopted or indentured at from fourteen 
to seventeen years of age. A few, regarded as more than 
ordinarily brilliant, are sent to the academy in Forty-second 
street, where they pass gratuitously through a three years' 
course of instruction. The Asylum has been from the first 
under the charge of the Sisters of Charity, who superin- 
tend the studies of the children, instruct the girls in the 



THE KOMAN CATHOLIC ORPHAN ASYLUM. 313 

various industrial arts, and attend to all the interests of 
the household. In 184C, the Asylum being inadequate to the 
demands, the society obtained from the Common Council, for 
one dollar a year, a errant of 450 feet of the west end of the 
block lying between Pifty-first and Fifty-second streets, front- 
ing on Fifth avenue. Upon this site was completed in Novem- 
ber, 1851, a beautiful four-story brick edifice, since known as 
the boys' buildings. The building consists of a central portion 
sixty feet by thirty, with front and rear enclosed balconies, 
fifteen feet wide on each story, and of two wings of the same 
height. In the rear of the northern wing is a building fifty 
by twentj'-five feet, used for kitchen, laundry, etc. The 
ceilings are high, the entire building well ventilated and 
warmed, and well arranged with class-rooms, dormitories, 
chapel, etc. In the rear is a large play-ground, while the 
grounds in front are richly cultivated, and profusely set with 
choice shrubbery and flowers. 

In 1857, the authorities granted the remaining portion of 
the same block of ground, extending to Fourth avenue, for 
additional buildings. Madison avenue, having since been 
extended, forms at present its western boundary. A plan 
was now formed for the erection of one of the largest and 
finest orphan houses in the country, for the reception and 
training of the smaller girls. The northern wing, two hundred 
feet in length and five stories high, was begun in 1866, and 
sufiiciently completed for the reception of the children on the 
23d of August, 1868. The basement contains the kitchen, 
laundry, heating apj^liances for the whole establishment, etc. 
The co(^king, washing, and heating are performed with steam. 
The first floor contains a dining-room of immense capacity. 
All the additional stories of this wing are to be devoted to 
dormitories, after the other portions are completed. These 
floors afford ample space for one hundred and fifty single 
beds each, and even more could be introduced. 

The high price of building materials at the time of its 
erection, and the purchase of the needed machinery, swelled 
the cost of this first section of the enterprise to nearly $150,000. 
In March, 1869, the main edifice fronting on Madison avenue 
was begun, and completed in the space of a year. This con- 
tains the parlors, school-rooms, the private apartments, and 
was completed at a less expense than the preceding. Another 
immense wing, the counterpart of the one first erected, is soon 
to follow, which will contain the chapel, infirmary, and vari- 



314 NEW YOKK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS. 

ous needed accommodations. The buildings are all five sto- 
ries above the basement, constructed with excellent taste, of 
pressed brick and freestone; in the Gothic order, with French 
roof, and will afford accommodation for one thousand children. 
This establishment, both for its colossal proportions and the 
beauty of its architecture, greatly exceeds the two preceding, 
which had previously been considered large and model asy- 
lums. About three hundred of the smaller girls, composed 
of orphans and half-orphans, are here domiciled at this 
writing. A regular English course of study is taught on five 
days of the week, a portion of Saturday and the Sabbath 
being devoted to the Roman catechism, and other exercises 
of religion. 

The last Ledslature contributed $10,000 of the people's 
money to this institution. 




NEW YORK ASYLUM FOR LYING-IN WOIIEN. 



{No. 83 Marion street. ) 



Tlie condition of many virtuous and worthy women, 
left homeless and friendless, in the most critical period 
of their history, led several humane physicians and a num- 
ber of excellent women, in 1822, to organize a society for 
the purpose of establishing a lying-in asylum. Tlien, as 
now, desertion from intemperance, destitution arising from 
long sickness, the unkindness of some husbands, or the loss 
of a partner by death, made such an asylum necessary. A 
ward had been devoted to these patients for twenty years 
in the Xew York Hospital, but a more private asylum was 
considered desirable. The act of incorporation passed the 
Legislature March 19, 1827. The business of the society is 
conducted by a board of thirty-three female managers, annu- 
ally elected by the society, wliich is composed of such females 
as contriluite the sum of $3 per aimum toward the support 
of the Institution. The work of the society began in some 
rooms in Orange street, leased for $275 per annum, where it 
continued eight years. The sixth annual meeting of the 



316 NEW TORE AND ITS mSTITUTIONS. 

organization was held in the lecture-room of the Brick Church,, 
on the 12th of March, 1829, and the report was read by Dr. 
James C. Bliss. In this he stated that thirty-four patients 
had been received during the year, that their accommodations 
were entirely inadequate to meet the wants of the class they 
were seeking to benefit, and recommended the plan of build- 
ing a suitable asylum. Eev. Dr. Macauly and Dr. Cock fol- 
lowed with addresses, in which they approved of the plan of 
erecting a new building. A subscription paper was immedi- 
ately prepared, and the sum of $550 subscribed during the 
day. Three lots were purchased far out of the city, and in 
1830 the Asylum now standing at No. 85 Marion street was 
erected. The three lots cost $2,750; and the building, which 
is a substantial three-story brick, forty-five by sixty feet, 
capable of accommodating fifty patients, $8,707. The Asylum 
has been supported by private subscriptions, with small excep- 
tions. In presenting their sixth report, in March, 1829, the 
managers gratefully acknowledged the reception of $200 from 
the corporation, which is a singular paragraph to read in these 
days, when millions are donated to similar charities. To 
remove a debt, at a later period, $1,500 were granted, and 
during the half century of its operations about $7,000 have 
been received from the city, and nothing from the State. 

The hospitalities of the Asylum are given without charge 
to virtuous, indigent women only, evidence of hondjlde mar- 
riage being invariably required. 

The Institution was established when foundling hospitals 
were not appreciated in this country, and when many be- 
lieved such institutions calculated to encourage vice. It has 
been the opinion of the managers that to throw the Institution 
open to all who should claim its assistance would unavoid- 
ably very soon confine its operations to the vicious alone, as 
virtuous married women would not become the associates and 
fellow-pensioners of the degraded and abandoned. Hence, 
to make the charity of value to the most worthy class, for 
which it was chiefly undertaken, none but the virtuous could 
be received. But in declining to receive those considered 
improper subjects, they did not abandon them to absolute 
destitution, for about the year 1830 a system of out-door 
charity was established. The city was divided into nineteen 
districts, and a physician appointed to each, who visited 
gratuitously by day and night all persons not admitted into 
the Institution, whenever application was made at the office 



KEW YORK MAGDAiEN BENEVOLENT SOCIETY. 317 

in the basement of the Asyhnn. This arrangement, with 
some modification, still continnes. Since the opening of the 
Asylum, 3,600 inmates have been received, and over 12,000 
ont-door patients have been attended by the district physi- 
cians. The number of applicants is not as large as in former 
years, 85 only being admitted during the last Welve months. 
The Institution is the most purely charitable of any on the 
island, as no board or other fee is required ; yet, situated in a 
retired nook at the head of Marion street, though one of the 
oldest, it is really the least known of any in the city. The 
managers, unwilling to be entirely supplanted by other insti- 
tutions, are now considering the propriety of removing the 
Asylum to a better locality. The matron, Mi-s. Hope, has 
taken charge of the Asylum over fifteen years, and proved 
herself an intelligent and conscientious Superintendent. The 
Asylum has furnished hundreds of wet nurses to families in 
need of them, aud situations to hundreds of others, who 
would otherwise have gone back to abodes of destitution, if 
not to ruin. Mrs. Mayor Hall is one of the active managers 
of the Institution. 



NEW YORK lilAGDALEN BENEVOLENT SOGIETT. 

{Fifth avenue and Eighty-eighth street. ) 

^ ^N the year 1828, several Christian ladies, representing 
}Mi different religious denominations, established a Sun- 
day school in the female penitentiary at Belle vue among 
those committed for variouscrimes, and others who 
required medical treatment. Interesting facts resulting from 
these efforts were communicated to the public, and such an 
interest awakened in the community that on the first day of 
January, 1830, the Xew York Magdalen Society was organ- 
ized. 

Two years later the society was for some cause disbanded. 
The interest awakened, however, did not decline, for on the 
extinction of the old organization three new ones sprang up, 
one in Laight, one in Spring, and one in the Carmine Street 
Churches. About the same time a society of gentlemen was 
organized, called the " Benevolent Society of the City of New 
York." In January, 1833, these societies were all again dis- 



318 NEW YOEK AJSTD ITS INSTITUTIONS. 

banded, and the " New Tork Female Benevolent Society" was 
organized, its officers and members being largely composed 
of persons who had given inspiration to the earlier organiza- 
tions. Subsequently the term " Female " was stricken out, 
and " Magdalen " inserted. The object of the society is the 
promotion of TRoral i^urity^ by affording an asylum to erring 
females, who manifest a desire to return to the paths of virtue, 
and by procuring employment for their future support. This 
society issued its first report in January, 1834, and among its 
list of members stands the name of Mrs. Thomas Hastings, 
whose life has been largely devoted to the success of this enter- 
prise, and who, in this, the thirty-ninth year of its operation, is 
its first directress. The present society began its benevolent 
work in a hired upper floor in Carmine street, near Bleecker. 
The inmates did not exceed ten in number at any time pre- 
vious to 1836. The society early arranged for the permanent 
establishment of the Institution, and a plot of ground, contain- 
ing twelve city lots and an old fi'ame building, was pm*chased 
at Eighty-eighth street and Fifth avenue, for the sum of 
$4,000. This location thirty years ago was far removed from 
the city, but is now becoming a very attractive part of it, and 
its streets will soon be lined with costly palaces. After occu- 
pying the old wooden building nearly twenty years, the enter- 
prising managers (all ladies) resolved to erect a new building, 
though at that meeting there was not a dollar in the treasury 
to defray the expenditures of such an undertaking. 

Trusting in the overruling providence of Him who had 
hitherto directed their efforts, they ari-anged their plan, and 
erected a fine three-story brick edifice, the means being pro- 
vided from time to time by the generous public, to which 
they have never appealed in vain. Additions have since been 
made, and the buildings, which can now accommodate nearly 
a hundred inmates, have cost over thirty thousand dollars. 
Property has so appreciated in this locality that the Asylum 
and its six remaining lots are valued at near $100,000. The 
yard fronting on Eighty-eighth street has a high brick wall, 
the other parts of the ground being enclosed with a strong 
board fence. The first floor of the Asylum contains rooms for 
the matron and assistant matron, a parlor, a laro;e work-room, 
and a neat chapel, with an organ and seating for a hundred 
persons. The two upper stories contain the sleeping apart- 
ments. The girls are not locked in their own private apart- 
ments, as in the Steenbeck Asylum of Pastor Heldring, in 



JTEW YORK MAGDALEN BENEVOLENT SOCIETY. 319 

Holland ; but the door leading from each floor is locked every 
nio-ht, and it would perhaps be an advantage if noisy and 
mrschievous ones were always compelled to spend the night 
in their own apartments. Girls are taken at from ten to 
thirty years of age, and remain a longer or shorter period, 
according to circumstances. None are detained against their 
will, unless consigned to the Asylum by their parents or the 
magistrates. A "Bible-reader visits the Tombs and other 
prisons, and encourages young women who express a desire to 
reform to enter the Asylum. Most of them have been ruined 
by intemperance, or want of early culture. The most hope- 
less among fallen women are those who have lived as mis- 
tresses. Many of these have spent years in idleness, affluence, 
and fashion, holding for their own convenience the threat of 
exposure over the heads of their guilty paramours, and have thus 
developed all the worst traits of fallen humanity, Not a few 
of these have been thoroughly restored to a virtuous life by 
this society. Industry is one of the first lessons of the Asy- 
lum, witliout which there can be no abiding reformation. A 
pure literature is afforded, with the assistance of an instructor, 
for those whose education has been neglected. When the 
inmate gives evidence that true A\omanhood is really return- 
ing, a situation is procured for her in a Christian family in 



'fej 



the city or country, the managers greatly preferring the 
latter. The chaplain. Rev. Charles C. Darling, has been 
connected with the Institution over thirty years, and has re- 
joiced over the hopeful conversion of naany of its inmates. 
Every Sabbath morning the family assembles for preaching, 
a Bible class is conducted by the chaplain in the afternoon, 
and again on Thursday afternoon, unless there is unusual 
religious interest among the inmates, when the ser\'ice is de- 
voted to preaching, exhortation, and prayer. The inmates 
often weep convulsively under the appeals of truth ; a score 
at times rise or kneel for prayer, at a single service. With 
some, it is deep and lasting, but with others it passes away 
like the morning cloud. At times, they hold prayer-meetings 
among themselves, with good results, and on other occasions 
their assemblies are broken up with bickerings and conten- 
tions. Many of them are talented and well favored, formed 
for more than an ordinary sphere in human life. They have 
recently formed themselves into a benevolent society, desig- 
nated *' The Willing Hearts," and have sent several remit- 
tances of clothing to a devoted missionary in Michigan. Tho 



320 NEW YOKK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS. 

matron, Mrs. Ireland, an esteemed Christian lady, has pre- 
sided for years with great skill over the Institution. This is 
the pioneer asylum of its kind in New York; the numerous 
similar societies now in operation have grown up through its 
example, and many of their managers were once associated 
with the Magdalen Society. The society has nobly breasted 
the tide of early prejudice, and conquered it. It has met 
with discouragements, as might have been expected, in every 
phase of its history, yet these have been of the kind that add 
momentum to the general movement, and make success the 
more triumphant. 

The statistics presented at its thirty-eighth anniversary are 
more than ordinarily interesting. During the last year, 18S 
had been in the Institution, with an average family of nearly 
fifty. It was also stated that during the last thirty-five years 
2,000 inmates had been registered, 600 of whom had been 
placed in private families, 400 returned to relatives, 400 had 
left the Asylum at their own request, 300, weary of restraint, 
had left without permission, 100 had been expelled, 300 had 
been temporarily transferred to the hospitals, 24 had been 
known to unite with evangelical churches, 20 had been legally 
married, and 41 had died. More than six thousand religious 
services had been held. But figures cannot express the 
amount of good done. Every fallen woman, while at large, 
is a firebrand inflaming others ; an enemy sowing tares in 
the great field of the world. Her recovery is, therefore, not 
only a source of good to herself but of prevention to others. 

The Asylum is maintained at an expense of about eight 
thousand dollars per annum. A permanent fund is being 
raised for the support of the chaplaincy. 

The Legislature recently donated $3,000 to the society. 




SOCIETY FOR THE RELIEF OF HALF-ORPHAXS. 321 



SOCIETY FOR THE EELIEF OF HALF-ORPHANS AND DESTITUTE 
CHILDREN. 

(No. 67 We.^t Tenth street.) 

^^ 
RPHAN children have always been considered suit- 
able objects of compassion and aid ; hence, asylums 
^^ for their protection and instruction have throuo-liout 
modern times been favorite establishments of the 
benevolent. In many cases the condition of the half -orphan 
is quite as pitiable as the orphan, and has an equal claim on 
our charity. Its mother may have been left in great destitu- 
tion or debility, or the father, the only surviving parent, may 
be insane or crippled. Many children whose parents are still 
living, but dissipated and reckless, are as badly off as either 
class before mentioned. No institution in Iscw York opened 
its doors for the reception of half-orphans until January 14^ 
1836. An affecting circumstance led to the founding of this 
charity. A young widow of Protestant sentiments, unable ta 
take her two children with her to her place of service, con- 
signed them to a Roman Catholic asylum, and for a time paid 
all her earnings for their board. Unwilling to have them 
trained in a liomish institution, and unable to provide for 
herself and them in the city, she took them from the asylum 
and went into the country. The lady with whom she had 
lived was Mrs. William A. Tomlinson, and the courageous 
departure of her excellent servant, from whom she never 
afterwards heard, produced a deep and salutary impression 
on her thoughtful and pious mind. The relation of the story 
to several benevolent ladies excited sympathy, and on the 
16th of December, 1835, seven of them asseml)led to mature 
a plan for organizing a society. On the same night the most 
disastrous fire ever known in the city occurred. The First 
Ward, east of Broadway and about Wall street, was almost 
entirely destroyed. The Merchants' Exchange and six hundred 
and forty-eight of the most valuable stores in the city, and 
considerable church property, were consumed, inflicting a loss 
upon the commmiity, besides the suspension of business, of 
$18,000,000. The society faltered amid these forbidding sur- 
roundings, but soon rallied, collected a little money, and began 
its operations. On the fourteenth day of January, 1830, a 



322 NEW YOEK A^T) ITS INSTITUTIONS. 

basement haviug been hired in "Whitehall street, the directors 
threw open their door, and announced themselves ready to 
admit twenty children, and four were at once received. The 
conditions of acceptance were these : 1. The death of one 
parent. 2. Freedom from contagious disease. 3. A promise 
from the parent to pay fifty cents per week for board, unless 
satisfactory reasons were given why it should not be required. 
4, No child received under four nor over ten years of age. 
The apartments being wlioUy unsuited, a house in Twelt'th 
street was taken and the children removed to it in May, 1836, 
and at the end of the first year 74 had been received. The 
entire expense of the first year, including rent, furniture, 
salaries, medicine, one funeral, and all other household requis- 
ites, amounted to $2,759.00. At the close of the second year 
114 had been received. The act of incorporation passed the 
Legislature xipril 27, 1837, vesting the corporate powers of the 
society in a self perpetuating board of nine male trustees, who 
were empowered to receive bequests, and hold property to 
any amount, the annual income of which should not exceed 
fifty dollars for every child received ; and the appropriation 
of the income and the internal and domestic management of 
the Institution were committed to a board of female managers, 
consisting of a first and a second directress, a secretary, a 
treasurer, and twenty-six others, residing at the time of their 
election in the city of Kew York, 

The board is also vested with power to bind out, to proper 
persons, children who have been surrendered to the Institu- 
tion, and all those not known to have friends in the State 
legally authorized to make such surrender. The children are 
not kept after they reach their fourteenth year, all being 
either returned to their parents or sent out to service. Their 
food is simple, abundant, and nutritious, and tliough small- 
pox, measles, scarlet fever, diphtheria, whooping-cough, and 
all the other diseases common to children, have occasion- 
ally crept into the Institution, but very few have died. Many 
of them have been vulgar and intractable at their entrance, 
but have soon yielded to wholesome discipline and example. In 
May, 1837, the family was removed to the Nicholson House, 
then No. 3 West Tenth street, which had been purchased by 
one of the trustees, and was sold to the society tlie following 
year. This building furnished accommodations for one hun- 
dred and twcTity children, and was soon filled. Durhig the 
summer of 184*0 a house was rented in Morristown, New 



SOCIETY FOE THE RELIEF OF HALF-OKPHANS. 323 

Jersey, and 47 of the children taken there to spend the hot 
season. In 1S40, the society, having received several liberal 
donations, purchased some valuable lots on Sixth avenue, 
where a three-story brick edifice sixty-four feet wide was 
erected, the cost of all but a little exceeding $20,000. In 
May, 1841, the children were removed to it, and the number 
a^ain much increased, some of the younger ones remaining 
in a part of the wood building on Tenth street, called at 
that time "the Nursery." This new building on Sixth ave- 
nue was occupied for sixteen years, though never equal to 
the demands, and after much discussion about removing the 
Institution out of the city, and other schemes for enlargement, 
more lots were finally secured adjoining those on Tenth street, 
the present building erected, and the "children removed to it 
amid the financial panic in the fall of 1857. The edifice is 
substantially constructed of brick trimmed with brown stone, 
is four stories above the basement, has a front of ninety-five 
feet, and cost, exclusive of grounds, over $37,000. The base- 
ment contains, besides wash-room and laundry, a fine play- 
room ; the first fioor, a kitchen, dining-room, parlor, and rooms 
for the matron. The second floor is devoted to school-rooms, 
the third contains dormitories for the girls, and the fourth the 
dormitories for boys, and an infirmary. The society has dis- 
charged all its indebtedness, converted its buildings on Sixth 
avenue into stores which bring a fine income, and now ranks 
among the most successful and best-established institutions 
of ISTew York. 

Since its organization, three thousand and thirty-three half- 
orphan children have been admitted to share its advantages, 
between two hundred and three hundred being the average 
number for several years past. All are instructed in the rud- 
iments of English learning, under the inspection of the Board 
of Education, and the usual percentage of the school fund 
and the State orphan fund are paid to the Institution. Public 
prayers are offered with the children every morning and even- 
ing"^; a fine Sabbath-school is conducted in the building, and 
all attend church. Early rising, industrious habits, great 
cleanliness, intellectual, moral, aYid religious instruction, are 
the chief characteristics of the Asylum. The Institution is 
Protestant, but not denominational. Mrs. Tomlinson, its chief 
foundress and promoter, continued its first director for twenty- 
seven years, and died in 1862. During the year 1869 the 
only remaining one of the seven who first organized the soci- 



324 NEW YORK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS. 



ety, Mrs. James Boorman, was also called to her reward. In 
May, 1870, Miss Mary Brasher, who had held a place of use- 
fulness in the board for more than twenty years, was also dis- 
charged by the great Master. 

The toils of these worthy ladies have sometimes appeared 
thankless. They have ever sought to strengthen the bond be- 
tween the parent and the child, by insisting on a small pay- 
ment for weekly board whenever possible, and thus have 
wisely prevented many parents from drowning their natural 
affection in idleness and dissipation. Yet their good works 
have not saved them from being occasionally covered with 
abuse by the dissolute and ungrateful. Numbers of the chil- 
dren, however, have given evidence of genuine conversion 
while in the Institution, and many more after having gone to 
live in Christian families in the country. Some who had not 
been heard from for years, when converted, have taken the 
earliest opportunity to write to the managers, breathing grate- 
ful emotion for those who had picked them from haunts of 
penury or dissipation, planted in their tender minds the 
seeds of truth, which were now developing into a holy life. 
Surely, He that went about doing good, and who took children 
in His arms, and blessed them, will not be unmindful of these 
toils, but in the day of final reckoning will say, " Inasmuch 
as ye have done it unto the least of these, ye have done it 
unto me." 




LEAKE AND WATTS ORPHAN HOUSE. 



(West One Hundred and Tenth street.) 

Many years ago, two young men were engaged in the study 
of law in the office of Judge James Duane, one of the early 
celebrities of the New York bar. Their ambitious and thor- 
ough bearing gave promise of more than ordinary success, to 
which they both ultimately attained. One was known as 
John George Leake, the other as John Watts. Mr. Leake in- 
herited a considerable estate from his father, and a long career 
as a legal adviser and a prudent business man, brought him 
at last to the possession of great wealth. He had no children ; 
and, after making a fruitless search through England and 
Scotland for some remaining kindred, he experienced the un- 
enviable sadness of knowing that he was the last of his race ; 
that, among all the scattered millions of earth, not one existed 
who was bound to him by ties of consanguinity. His later 
years were passed in comparative retirement in his own house 
at Xo. 32 Park row, visited and known only by several acquaint- 
ances of his earlier years, among whom was Mr. Jolm 
Watts. Mr. Leake desired to per])etuate his family name in 
Kew York, and after his death, which occurred June 2d, 1827, 



326 NEW YORK AInD ITS INSTITUTIONS. 

his will disclosed the fact that he had selected Eobert "Watts, 
the second son of his old friend, to inherit his estate, on con- 
dition that he and his descendants should take and forever 
bear the surname of Leake ; but, in case of his refusal to ac- 
cept it on these conditions, or of his decease during his min- 
ority without lawful issue, then the entire estate was to be de- 
voted to an orphan house, of which he furnished the design, 
and appointed the seven ex-officio trustees. The last will and 
testament of Mr. Leake was found among his papers in his 
own handwriting, finely executed, with his full name at its 
commencement, but, unfortunately, he had neglected to add 
his signature at its close, and to secure the proper witnesses. 
He named four executors, only two of whom, however, Her- 
mon LeEoy, and his old friend, John Watts, survived him. 
The surrogate of the county refused to admit the will to pro- 
bate, on account of its impei:fect execution, and a long and 
expensive litigation ensued. The authorities of New York 
claimed that ilr. Leake died intestate, and that his property 
fell to the city ; but after a series of ably contested suits, in 
which thirty thousand dollars of his savings were squandered, 
the highest judicatory decreed that the instrument was a valid 
testamentary document so far as his personal property was 
concerned, but that the landed estate, valued at seventy or 
eighty thousand dollars, escheated to the State. 

Up to the period of this final decision, which occurred 
about the close of 1829, it was not known whether or not 
Eobert would comply with the conditions, and receive the es- 
tate, which still amounted to about four hundred thousand 
dollars. He liad waited quietly for the close of the litigation, 
and then decided to accept it. Application was made to the 
Legislature for the enabling act, but ere its passage he died 
suddenly, to the great disappointment of his friends, leaving 
all his possessions to his father. 

Mr. John Watts, who was also very wealthy, being now far 
advanced in years, and having no surviving sons, took a most 
sensible view of the situation, and immediately proceeded to 
carry out the design of his departed friend, namely, to estab- 
lish the Orphan House. On the 7th of March, 1S31, an act 
passed the Legislature incorporating the Leake and W^^^^ 
Orphan House'in the city of New York. The testator wisely 
directed that the Orphan House should be erected from the 
income of the estate, so as to preserve the capital for a per- 
manent endowment; consequently, the structure was not 



LEAKE AND WATTS ORPHAN HOUSE. 327 

comincuced for several years. A plot of twenty acres of 
ground was selected at Bloomingdale, One Hundred and 
Tenth street, and on the 28th of April, 1838, the corner-stone 
of the building was laid in the presence of a large audience, 
several distinguished clergymen of New York taking part in 
the exercises. The edifice, completed November 1843,. 
consists of a large central building and two wings ; the 
front entrance is reached by a broad flight of sixteen granite 
steps, while the porticos, front and rear, are supported" by six 
immense Ionic columns. The basement is of granite, the 
three succeeding stories of brick, well appropriated to school- 
rooms, dormitories, play-rooms, and all other needed apart- 
ments, capable of accommodating tlu-ee hundred children,, 
though the income from the endowment is not "sufficient for 
so large a family. The eastern wing is devoted to the boys, 
the western to the girls ; each story is provided with a wide 
veranda, skirted with a high, massive balustrade, and fur- 
nished with an outside stairway, affording excellent facilities 
for escape in case of fire. A one-story building in the rear, 
connected with the main building by a covered passage-way, 
has recently been added, and is used as the kitchen and 
dining-room. The schools are well conducted. The children 
are all dressed alike ; are well taught in the principles of 
Protestant Christianity, and appear healthy and happy. 
Since the opening of the Institution, about one thousand 
orphan children have here found a happy home, the average 
number at present being about one hundred and twenty, and 
are supported at an annual expense of about $26,000. The 
cost per child has more than doubled during the last fifteen 
years. The original cost of the laud and buildings was about 
$80,000, which lias so wonderfully increased in value that the 
trustees have recently sold four acres for $130,000. The 
excellent Superintendent, Mr. TV". H. Guest, has spent his 
whole life in public institutions. He was twenty years con- 
nected with the nursery department of our city charities, and 
has now closed his sixteenth year in the Oi-phan House. 




NEW YORK JUVENILE ASYLUM. 



(One Himdred and Seventy-sixth street.) 

Every great city contains a large floating population, 
whose indolence, prodigality, and intemperance are pro- 
verbial, culminating in great domestic and social evil. From 
these discordant circles spring an army of neglected or 
ill-trained children, devoted to vagrancy and crime, who 
early find their way into the almshouse or the prison, and 
continue a life-long burden upon tlie community. It be- 
comes the duty of the guardians of the public weal to search 
out methods for the relief of society from these intolerable 
burdens, and the recovery of the wayward as far as possible. 
That a necessity existed for tlie establishment of this Insti- 
tution, ap]jears from the fact that two companies of distin- 
guished philanthropists, in ignorance of each other, arose in 
the autumn of 1849, to inaugurate some movement for the 
suppression of juvenile crime. Each company applying to 
the Mayor, they were happily united, and after careful dis- 
cussion, and repeated appeals to the Legislature, the New 
York Juvenile Asylum was incorporated June 30, 1851, with 
twenty-four managers, the Mayor, the Presidents of the 



NEW YORK JUVENILE ASYLUM. 329 

Board of Aldermen and Assistants, and some other officials, 
being ex-ojicio members of its board. After the failure of 
their first application to the Legislature for a charter, in 1850, 
a number of Christian ladies formed an association, and 
opened an " Asylum for Friendless Boys," in a hired build- 
ing, No. 109 Bank street. They entered this inviting field 
with considerable enthusiasm, and toiled with marked suc- 
cess until the chartering of the society, when they volun- 
tarily transferred their charge, consisting of fifty-seven boys, 
to the managers of the new Institution. The charter made 
it obligatory upon the board that the sum of $50,000 should 
be obtained from voluntary subscriptions, before it should be 
entitled to ask from the city authorities for a similar sum, or 
to call upon them to support its pupils. The board was per- 
manently organized November 14, 1851, and so vigorous 
were the exertions of its members, that, by the following 
October, the required $50,000 were pledged, and an appeal 
to the supervisors was responded to one month later with a 
similar sum, thus securing §100,000 for a permanent loca- 
tion and buildings. After taking possession of the building 
in Bank street, a House of Eeception was, at the beginning 
of 1853, opened on the same premises, and soon after a 
building at the foot of Fifty-fifth street. East river, was 
leased, to be occupied temporarily as an Asylum. During 
the year 626 children were received, and during 1854 no 
less than 1,051 were admitted, making a permanent family 
of two hundred. The buildings being uncomfortably crowded 
and illy adjusted for such an enterprise, the Institution se- 
riously suffered in all its branches. After much difficulty 
the b(jard selected and purchased twenty-five acres of rocky 
land at One Hundred and Seventy-sixth street, near the High 
Bridge, where very commodious buildings were erected of 
stone quarried from the premises, and made ready for occupa- 
tion in April, 1856, with accommodation for five hundred 
children. The buildings have been several times enlarged, 
and now consist of a central five-story, skirted by two 
vast wings of four stories each, supplemented with rear 
extensions, and appropriate outbuildings for shops, play, etc. 
A three-story brick, one hundred and eight by forty-two feet, 
has just been erected to supply some needed class-rooms, 
a better gymnasium, a swimming bath, and the appropriate 
industrial departments. The cost of these buildings has ex- 
ceeded $140,000. They stand on a lofty eminence, two points 



330 NEW YORK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS. 

only on the island being higher, surrounded with cultivated 
gardens, finely-arranged gravel walks and carriage-ways, and 
with play-grounds covered with asphaltum, and shaded with 
trees of rare growth. A large platform, with seats, has been 
erected on the central roof of the main Asylum, affording 
visitors an extended view of the enchanting scenery of Fort 
Washington and the High Bridge. The location in summer 
is one of the choicest in the world, though somewhat bleak 
in winter. 

The children who come under the care of the society are 
between the ages of five and fourteen, and may for the sake 
of brevity be divided into two general classes. First, the 
truant and disobedient ; secondly, the friendless and neg- 
lected. The first are either voluntarily surrendered by their 
parents for discipline, or committed by the magistrates for 
reformation. The second class found in a state of friendless- 
ness and want, or of abandonment, or vagrancy, may be com- 
mitted by the mayor, recorder, any alderman or magistrate of 
the city. The charter requires that, when such commitment 
shall have been made, a notice shall be forthwith served on 
the parent, if any can be found, and that the child shall 
be retained twenty days at the House of Reception, during 
which period, if satisfactory assurances or securities for the 
training of the child be given, the magistrate may revoke the 
commitment ; but if not,"it becomes the ward of the managers 
of the Asylum, who may indenture the same at discretion to 
a suitable person. 

The House of Reception, No. 61 West Sixteenth street, is 
a broad, well-arranged, four-story brick edifice, with iron 
stairways, first occupied in 1859, and cost, including ground, 
$40,000. It accommodates comfortably one hundred and 
thirty children, and is always filled, as most remain here four 
or five weeks before they are sent to the Asylum. The 
fii'st great lesson inculcated after admission is cleanliness, 
without which there cannot be self-respect, laudable ambition, 
or godliness. The child is stripped of its filthy garments, 
taken by a kind woman to a vast bathing tub, supplied with 
jets of hot and cold water, and thoroughly scrubbed, after 
which it is clothed with a new clean suit, retained alone until 
pronounced by the physician free from infectious disease, 
after wliich it is assigned to its appropriate class, and enters 
npon the study and discipline of the Institution. Bathing is 



NEW YOKE JUVENILE A'SYLUM. 331 

continued regularly twice a week during the year, ample 
facilities being provided in both Houses. 

The schools, long under the able Principalship of James S. 
Appley, Esq., are conducted by graduates selected for their 
skill in discipline, and the children make rapid progress in 
study while they remain in the Institution. The libraries of 
the Asylum contain nearly two thousand volumes. Fifty of 
the boys are at present instructed and employed in the tailor 
shop ; thirty in the shoe shop, fifteen at a time ; others toil 
in the gardens, supplying all the vegetables for the family ; 
while others are made useful in cleaning halls, washing veg- 
etables, sweeping yards, making the beds in the dormitories, 
etc. Hours are set apart for family and public religious in- 
struction and worship, for lectures, instruction in music, 
temperance meetings, and other opportunities of culture. 
The children retire at a quarter before eight in summer, and 
at seven in winter, and are required to rise with the sun or 
before it.. Nine or ten hours are thus given for uninterrupted 
sleep. The managers secured for a number of years for their 
Superintendent the services of Dr. S. D. Brooks, an educated 
physician and a gentleman of fine administrative talent, 
coupled with a long experience in training truant children. 
He has recently connected himself with the " New York In- 
stitution for the Instruction of the Deaf and Dumb," and his 
place in the Asylum has been filled by Mr. E. M. Carpenter, 
late of the House of Refuge, at Eochester, New York, 
another gentleman of large and successful experience. 

The sanitary interests of the Asylum have been so well con- 
ducted that of the fifteen thousand three hundred and thirty- 
six children admitted since its opening in January, 1853, 
only sixty-three have died, and during 1864-65 but one death 
occurred. 

The correctives applied are mainly moral, the rod being 
very rarely employed ; but the hundreds of unruly boys re- 
ceived annually make more and more necessary the erection 
of a high enclosure around the premises. The building was 
loiif^ poorly supplied with water from wells, and the danger 
of tire was a source of deep and constant anxiety, but the 
construction of the high-service reservoir has at last obviated 
this difiiculty. A steam pump has recently been connected 
with the general heating apparatus, capable of throwing two 
hundred gallons of water per minute to any part of the build- 
ings, with well-arranged iron pipe and hose for the speedy ex- 



332 NEW YOKE AND ITS INSTITUTIONS. 

tinction of fire. The plan of the Institution is the early return 
of the children to their parents, or their indenture to respon- 
sible families in the country ; hence few remain over six 
months. The State of Illinois, the garden of the West, was 
early selected as the place for the deportation and indentur- 
ing of the children, and over three thousand have been placed 
in these Western homes. A House of Reception, under 
charge of a resident agent, has been established at Chicago. 
This agent regularly visits the children and corresponds with 
the families in which they live, taking care that justice is 
done to all concerned. Children are not indentured without 
the consent of their parents, except in extreme cases. They 
are often placed in large numbers in a township or county, 
and thus allowed to continue their early acquaintance, and 
rival each other in attainments and worth. Clergymen and 
other persons of character are requested to instruct and other- 
wise care for them after their indenture, and very few have 
turned out badly. More than $250,000 have been contributed 
by pi-ivate parties toward the support of this Institution since 
its establishment, its chief revenue being derived from the 
city government. It is admirably conducted, and ranks 
among the best institutions of the age. 




THE HOUSE OF MERCY. 



(EigJdy -sixth street. North river.) 

Woman has in all time borne a conspicuous part in works 
of benevolence and reformation. There is an intensity in the 
female nature which generally develops into positive traits 
of character, either for good or for evil. She loves or hates 
with all her heart, and can hardly occupy a middle ground. 
The instincts of a good and true woman are easily aroused by 
the cries of the wretched and helpless, and her entire nature 
is at once thrown into efforts for their relief. In the quick- 
ness of lier perceptions, in the depth and constancy of her 
sympathy and affection, as well as in the sublimity of her 
faith, she has often excelled her more hardy companion. 
But alas! an angel corrupted becomes a de^^l, and a woman 
abandoned to treachery and lust becomes a mournful wreck, 
of all others the most difficult to recover. Nature thus 
abused seeks to avenge itself of the outrage, by sadly invert- 
ing all her high-wrought faculties, degrading to the deepest 
infamy all that was formed for sublimity and purity. Only 
woman can intimately superintend the recovery of her own 



334: NEW YORK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS. 

fallen sex, and the age has produced not a few who have suc- 
cessfully toiled in this dark and forbidding field. 

The House of Mercy was founded in 1854, through the 
untirino; exertions of Mrs. S. A. Richmond, wife of the late 
Rev. William Richmond, formerly rector of St. Michael's 
Church, New York. The act of incorporation was passed 
February 2d, 1855. The efforts of the society for several 
years were on a limited scale, and conducted in private 
houses hired or gratuitously furnished by the friends of the 
enterprise. The zeai and efforts of Mrs. Richmond, who was 
a Christian lady of rare endowments and great address, dur- 
ing the infancy of the movement are infinitely above all 
praise. She not only sought with the most careful training 
the reformation of the fallen in the Institution, but shrank 
from no other toil or exposure. For several years she so suc- 
cessfully plead the cause of the society at the markets, in the 
streets, and before the counters of the merchants, that the 
supplies of the House were never exhausted. When her 
failing health compelled her to resign the superintendency in 
the Institution, she still conducted the branch office at No. 
304 Mulberry street, recei\ang and sending to Eighty-sixth 
street the women who desired to reform. She was succeeded 
in the management of the Institution by several members of 
the sisterhood of St. Mary, of the Protestant Episcopal Church, 
who had spent some time at St. Luke's. At first only the 
internal government was committed to them, but for several 
years past the financial department, in connection with^ the 
trustees, has been in their charge also, leaving the committee 
of ladies to whom this was at first assigned as merely repre- 
sentatives from their respective churches. The sisters have 
succeeded with much satisfaction both to themselves and 
others. The younger class of fallen women are taken, a 
large part of them being between twelve and twenty years of 
age. They are not compelled to remain against their will, and 
if very refractory are sent away. Deep-rooted virtue is with 
them a plant of slow growth, hence a period of exclusion fi-om 
ordinary society for one or two years is considered essential 
to their thorough reformation. Many return to their fi-iends, 
after spending a few weeks or months in the Institution ; sorne 
depart at the request of the sisters, or without it; others remain 
long, and then go to service in good families, or enter upon 
the responsible duties of the conjugal state. Quite a large 
number of the inmates have been confirmed as members of 



ilCT'"''-;7:]|l|l||lij||||ffl 




'\\\i ill,'!'' 'I'll '!"■'' ' 




THE HOUSE OF MERCY. 335 

the church by the bishop at his annual visit to the Institution^ 
a few of wliom have failed in the performance of their 
religious obligations, but many of them have nobly persevered. 
The Institution is mainly supported and entirely controlled by 
the Protestant Episcopal church, one of her clergymen offici- 
ating as chaplain. 

On the 16th of June, 1859, ten lots of ground, containing a 
large country mansion, were purchased at a cost of about 
$12,000. The property is situated between Eighty-fifth and 
Eighty-sixth streets, near the Hudson river. Six lots have 
since l3een added. Several successful fairs have been held, 
and a number of State and city donations received, the 
largest of which was granted by the Legislature of 1867, 
amounting to $25,000. The earnings of the inmates have 
thus far been small, and the society depends upon its annual 
subscribers and the gifts of the benevolent for the support 
of the House. When the mansion was purchased it was said 
to be able to accommodate one hundred inmates besides the 
ladies in charge, but like too many other estimates it fell 
short just one half. It has never afforded the space or ar- 
ran^^ement for suitably classifying and dividing its forty-five 
or fifty inmates, a matter of vital importance in such an insti- 
tution. For several years the society sought for means to 
enlarge their buildings. The State grant of 1867, supple- 
mented by liberal subscriptions from the friends of the enter- 
prise, enabled them in 1869 to carry forward this much-de- 
sired project. 

The corner-stone of the new building was laid by Bishop 
Potter of Xew York on the 16th of October, 1869, in the 
presence of Bishops Southo;ate, Lay, Quintard, and a large 
number of clergymen and friends of the Institution from the 
city. An interesting address, containing valuable reminis- 
cences of the past, was delivered by Rev. Dr. Peters. The 
building occupies a beautiful site, almost overhanging the 
Hudson, fronting on Eighty-sixth street, and at a pleasant 
remove from the new Boulevard. It is built of sandstone and 
red brick, relieved with dressings of Ohio stone. On entering 
the principal door, access is had to a spacious hall ; opening 
out of this are offices, and beyond a broad staircase of iron 
ascending to the upper stories. On the floor above is a cor- 
ridor, ninety feet in length, lighted by windows taken from 
the old oratory, thus connecting the old building with the 
chapel, dining-hall, and school-rooms. The chapel is fifty feet 



336 NEW YOKK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS, 

in length, terminating at the eastern end in a circular apse ; 
the altar and reredos are of carved stone, supported by pillars 
of polished marble, the sanctuary being laid with encaustic 
tile. At the west end, on either side of the door, are apart- 
ments for the Sisters, and above these, behind an open arcade, 
are two concealed galleries, one for visitors and the other for 
the sick. In the second story are placed the infirmary, a 
Sister's room, bath-room, and a mortuary; over these a dormi- 
tory, divided into little rooms by low wainscot partitions and 
curtained doors. A slender beR-turret surmounts the roof, 
rising to the height of eighty-eight feet. The basement con- 
tains laundry, kitchen, pantries, and store-room. The stained 
glass for the windows was imported from England. The 
edifice cost $30,000, and the sixteen lots, with their buildings, 
are now valued at $100,000, and are fi-ee from debt. The 
number of inmates is now to be increased from forty-five to 
one hundred, and the managers propose to eventually remove 
the old frame mansion and complete a large quadrangle, in- 
closing the property of the Institution with permanent build- 
ings in the style of the one just erected. 



HEBREW BENEVOLENT AND ORPHAN ASYLUM SOCIETY OF 
THE CITY OF NEW YORK. 

(Seventy-seventh street and Third avenue.) 

r"'^^ N" the 8th of April, 1822, a number of gentlemen of 
]^^ the Jewish persuasion, residents of the city of New 
J^i^ York, organized the " Hebrew Benevolent Society," 
^^^ which was incorporated by act of Legislature Febru- 
ary 2, 1832, granting power to hold real and personal estate, 
the annual income of which should not exceed $2,000. The 
objects of the society were stated to be "charitable, and to 
atford relief to its members in cases of sickness and infirm- 
ity." 

In January, 1845, the "Grerman Hebrew Benevolent 
Society," a rival organization, sprang up, which was the same 
year incorporated, and exerted a large influence for fourteen 
years. The objects of this organization, as set forth in its act 



HEBREW BENEVOLENT AND ORPHAN ASTLTJM BOCIETY. 337 

of incorporation, were — "to assist the needy, succor the help- 
less, and protect the weak." The proceedings of this society 
were transacted and the minutes kept in the German lan- 
guage. In 1S47 this society voted $1,500 out of its general 
fund, and a portion of its annual receipts, toward the erection 
of a hospital. The Hebrew Benevolent Society promptly 
imited in this movement, but, as the wealthier congregations 
withheld their support, the enterprise failed for lack of means. 
In 1859 the German Society having voted to appropriate the 
hospital fund for the establishment of an oi-phan asylum, and 
a home for aged and indigent Jews, and the opinion having 
become general that the cause of charity would be promoted 
by a union of the two societies, they were happily united, and 
a supplementary act of incorporation passed April 12, 1860, 
under the title of the " Hebrew Benevolent and Orphan 
Asylum Society of the City of New York." The new or- 
ganization proposed " to relieve the sick, succor the poor and 
needy, support and comfort the widow, clothe, educate, and 
maintain the orphan." This was to be done by the establish- 
ment of a well-regulated system of out-door relief for the 
poor ; by founding and maintaining an asylum for Jewish 
orphans ; and by establishing a home for the support of the 
aged poor. Any Israelite may become a member of the 
society on the payment of one hundred dollars. The busi- 
ness of the society is conducted by a president, vice-presi- 
dent, a treasurer, and eighteen trustees, six of whom are 
annually elected at the meeting of the society in April. 

The last act of incorporation granted power to hold estate, 
the income of wliich should not exceed $15,000 ; authorized 
the city to grant land to the society for the erection of suit- 
able buildings ; and clothed it with the same power to man- 
age and indenture orphans that had been given to other 
societies. In 1861 the Corporation granted a beautiful plot 
of ground on the corner of Seventy-seventh street and Third 
avenue, and the sum of $30,000 toward the erection of an 
asylum. The corner-stone of the building was laid Septem- 
ber 30th, 1862, and the edifice formally dedicated November 
5, 1863. The Asylum consists of a main building and two 
wings, the principal front, on Seventy-seventh street, being 
one hundred and twenty feet, with a depth of sixty, and cost 
$40,000. It is constructed of brick, is three stories high, 
besides a high basement and sub-cellar. The ceilings are 
high, the halls wide, the apartments conveniently arranged 



338 NEW YORK AND ITS rNSTlTUTlONS. 

with all the modern improvements, and crowned everywhere 
with completest order and tidiness. The lecture-room (or 
miniature synagogue), like every other part of the Institution, 
is replete with Jewish taste and trimming. A yard one hun- 
dred and twenty-five feet by one hundred and two, lying be- 
tween the Asylum and Third avenue, is devoted to a beautiful 
flower-garden, and ample play-grounds are furnished in the 
rear. 

The Superintendent, Louis Schnabel, is a Jewish rabbi, and 
conducts the services of the Institution. At the opening of 
the Asylum fifty-six orphans, who had been provided for by 
the society in various places, were transferred to it, and the 
number has since reached one hundred and fifty-eight, the 
full capacity of the building. The children attend the 
public schools daily, where they generally excel in their stud- 
ies, and when promoted to the grammar department they 
also take up the study of Hebrew in the Asylum. These 
Hebrew scholars are divided into five classes, and many of 
the students attain a fine education. Experimental work- 
shops have recently been added, which if successful will soon 
be greatly enlarged. Ninety -five of the one hundred and 
fifty-eight in the Institution during 1869 were born in New 
York, and the remaining sixty-three represented eleven of the 
American States, and seven of the countries of Europe and 
Asia. Eight were admitted at the age of five, two at seven- 
teen ; the larger portion are, however, received between the 
ages of seven and twelve years. Indentures are made only 
to Hebrews of good standing. 

Eight members of the board of directors are constituted a 
committee of charity and relief, who investigate by personal 
visitation the circumstances of all applicants. During 1869,. 
3,926 persons were relieved at an expense of $13,425. One 
hundred and forty-six persons were assisted to go West, South, 
or to return to friends in Europe. 

The Hebrew fair, held during the last year, and one of 
the most successful ever held on Manhattan by any society, 
netted the Asylum $35,000, and the Mount Sinai Hospital 
over $100,000. 




HOUSE OF THE GOOD SHEPHERD. 



{Ninetieth street and East river.) 

This Institution was commenced on the 2d of October, 
1857, by five members of the "Order of Our Lady of 
Charity of the Good Shepherd," belonging to the Mother 
House' of Angers, in France. The operations of the society 
began in a house in Fourteenth street, but in 1861 they 
erected a convent and chapel at the foot of Ninetieth street. 
East river. In 1864 a five-story brick building, fifty feet 
by ninety, was reared on Eighty -ninth street, one hundred 
and twenty-five feet from the convent, and in 1868 and 
1869 another of the same size was joined to the end of the 
former, stretching across to Ninetieth street. The cost of 
their buildings has now exceeded $275,000, and another 
edifice is still to be added to complete their plan. 

The order was founded by Pere Eudes in 1661, with the 
avowed object of affording a refuge for fallen women and 
girls who desired to reform. Being an enclosed order, a veil 
of secrecy is thrown over most of their doings. The Lady 
Superior converses with the outside world through an iron- 
grated ceiling, inside of which the curious are seldom per- 
mitted to step, and the order, except a few outside Sisters, are 



340 NEW TOKK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS. 

forever concealed in the shadows of the cloister. By recep- 
tion of novices, the order now numbers ninety membei-s,^ 
besides the out-door Sisters ; twelve of these are engaged in 
founding an order in Brooklyn, and eleven in Boston. The 
Institution is a house of correction, seeking the reform of 
abandoned women, some of whom come voluntarily, others 
b}'' persuasion, some are sent by the courts, and some are 
placed here by their friends. 

The Sisters declare that moral means alone are employed 
for the reformation of the inmates, and that those who come 
voluntarily can depart at pleasure ; but some who have escaped 
have told doleful stories about the discipline and fare, upon 
the merits of which we shall not attempt to decide. The 
Sisters dwell in the convent, but some of them are said to be 
always with the inmates both night and day, in recreation, 
toil, devotion, and slumber. The inmates are divided into 
four classes, each of which is entirely separated from all the 
rest, with whom they are never allowed to communicate. 
The first class consists of penitent magdalens, who have been 
converted fi'om the error of their ways, and who have been 
admitted to a low grade of the order. The second class is 
composed of penitent women and girls, received into the 
Asylum but not yet converted. The third is a preservation 
class, composed of children who are in danger of falling, 
most of whose parents are bad. The fourth consists of girls 
between the ages of fourteen and twenty-one, who have been 
committed by the magistrates, and who remain during the 
term of commitment. About twenty-nine hundred have been 
received into the Institution since its founding, very many 
of whom are said to have reformed, though the screen which 
prevents public inspection leaves greater place for distrust 
than with almost any other institution in New York. In 
February, 1870, no less than seven hundred inmates were 
concealed within those walls, three hundred of whom had 
been sent by the magistrates, and the superioress informed 
us that one hundred and fifty more could be well accommo- 
dated. Their chief occupation is machine and hand sewing, 
embroidery, with various other species of remunerative 
handicraft, and laundry work. The Institution has a priest 
who conducts service every morning in the chapel, where all 
attend. This institution is noted as the place of the involun- 
tary confinement of Mary Ann Smith, the daughter of a 
Komanist, who had embraced Protestantism. Many of the 



ST. BAKNABAS HOUSE. 341 

girls received remain permanently through life, a few after- 
wards marry, some after their reformation go out to service 
in good families, and not a few descend again to old practices 
and "wallow in the mire." The Public Authorities have 
dealt very liberally with this Institution. 



ST. BARNABAS HOUSE. 

(No. 304 Mulberry street.) 




'HIS House was originally opened by Mrs. "William 
Richmond, under the name of the " Home for Home- 
less Women and Children." Before her death it was 
purchased by the ISTew York Protestant Episcopal 
City Mission Society, and opened in June, 1865, under the 
name of the St. Barnabas House. In 1866 the society pur- 
chased the adjoining building, No. 306 Mulberry street, in the 
front of which the chapel was located, leaving the basement, 
second story, and attic of this building, as well as all of the 
building No. 304, for the pui-poses of the Home. A rear 
building, connected with No. 306, furnished convenient rooms 
for the clergy and committees. The buildings are of bricky 
of moderate size, and contain fifty beds, sixteen of which are 
for children. 

The House was opened by the above-mentioned society as 
a sort of experiment, and an executive committee was 
appointed for its management, who relied mainly on special 
contributions for its support. The House is designed as a 
place of refuge for homeless women and children, applying 
from the streets or wandering in from the country ; also for 
women discharged from the hospital, cured, but requiring a 
few days of repose to recover strength, but destitute of home, 
friends, and money. It is however intended only as a tempo- 
rary resting-place, hence most of those admitted are sent to 
situations during the first week. The average stay of 2,150 
women in the House during 1869 was three and one-fifth 
days. During 1865 there were but two months that there 
were over eighty inmates received. In November, 1866, the 



342 NEW YORK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS. 

number reached 166, and in December 196. Each month 
in 1868 brought over two hundred, the largest number in 
any month being 262. A little family of sixteen children 
who have no homes are kept as steady inmates, clothed and 
instructed. One room is set apart as a wardrobe department, 
where garments are made and repaired. Nearly six thou- 
sand persons have been received during the last three years, 
of whom 3,602 were Protestants, 2,203 Soman Catholics, and 
7 Jews. Of this number, 1,924 were sent to situations, 1,456 
to other institutions, and 1,835 returned to their friends. 
But one death occurred in the House during that time. 
During the same time the House afforded 46,958 lodgings 
to the homeless, and supplied 188,163 gratuitous meals to 
the hungry. The annual expenses of the Institution amount 
to about $7,000. The business of the House has outgrown 
its accommodations, and the managers have appealed for 
means to greatly enlarge their borders, and supply several 
desirable apartments never yet provided. 

Destitute and afflicted families in the neighborhood almost 
daily apply at the Institution for assistance. A visitor is sent 
to investigate the case, and if found to be one of real distress 
relief in some form is administered. Some are allowed to 
come to the House for meals, others are supplied with coal, 
garments, or money for rent. Much attention is given to the 
sick. 

The House the last year has been managed bv the " Sister- 
hood of the Good Shepherd," a new order of females in the 
Protestant Episcopal church. Several Sisters were organized 
under the above title by the bishop of the diocese, in St. 
Ann's church, on the second Tuesday after Easter, 1869. At 
the time of the organization there were three Sisters received, 
also three visitors, and one associate. Some of these have 
since retired from active service, and as these organizations 
are not popular among Protestants, only enough have been 
received to keep good the original number. 

The habit worn by this order is the most simple of any we 
have yet seen, and hence less objectionable. They are much 
devoted to their undertaking, and abundant in toil, making 
several hundred visits to those sick or in prison per year, be- 
sides conducting the House of St. Barnabas. A small room 
on the third floor has been set apart for an Oratory, where the 
Sisters all retire at twelve o'clock each day for prayer, which 
is offered by the superioress, all others joining in the responses. 



ST. BAKNABAS HOUSE. 343 

The room is neatly carpeted, has chairs and a small reading 
desk, but contains no images, pictures, or ornaments of any 
kind. Family prayer is also daily conducted in the House, 
and all the inmates are required to attend. A chaplain con- 
ducts service every Lord's Day. A number of ladies and 
gentlemen from the surrounding parishes conduct a Sunday- 
school for the benefit of the children in the House, and those 
of the neighborhood. The register contains the names of 
over two hundred scholars, less than half of whom attend 
regularly. There is also connected with the Institution an 
industrial society, composed of twenty-two ladies, who hold 
a weekly sewing school, with an average attendance of sixty- 
five girls. The Institution is located in a neighborhood greatly 
needing its influence, and has been already a rich fountain of 
blessing to thousands. 




THE INSTITUTION OP MERCY (BOYS' BUILDING). 



THE INSTITUTION OF MERCY. 



{No. 33 Houston street.) 

This Institution is situated at No. 33 Houston street, ad- 
joining and controlled by the Convent of "the Sisters of 
Mercy. The society was incorporated in 1848, under the 
general act of May 12th of that year, and the tliree-story 
brick building corner of Houston and Mulberry streets pur- 
chased at a cost of $30,000. This is the Cons^ent, or home of 
the Sisters of Mercy. The same year the edifice known as the 
Institution of Mercy, a plain four-story brick, forty feet by 
seventy-two, was begun, on lots adjoining the purchased build- 
ing, and sufficiently completed to receive inmates in Novem- 
ber, 1849. The Sisters of Mercy are a religious order of Ro- 
man Catholics, founded by Catharine McAuly, a lady of for- 
tune of Dublin, in 1827, and the order was approved by 
Pope Gregory XVI. in 1835, and confirmed in 1841. The 
order has in view the visitation of the sick and prisoners, 
the instruction of poor girls, and the protection of virtuous 
women in distress. The first community in the United States 
was established in Pittsburg in 1843, Init none entered New 
York until 1846, when Archbishop Huglies invited them to 



THE INSTITUTION OF MEKOT. 345 

come from Ireland and establish an institution. The Sisters 
are subject to the bishops, but have no general superior, each 
community being independent of the rest of the order. The 
Sisters are divided into two orders : choir sisters, who are em- 
ployed about the ordinary objects of the order ; and lay sis- 
ters, who attend to the domestic avocations of the convent, etc. 
Candidates for admission into the order undergo a "postul- 
ancy " of six months ; they then receive the white veil and 
enter the novitiate, which lasts two years, being permitted at 
any time to return to the world before the vows are finally 
taken. The presiding mind in each community is the Mother 
Superior. Agnes O'Conner was the first in New York, and 
the present one is the fourth. The community at present 
numbers 49, 12 of whom are at the Industrial Home at Eighty- 
first street. The Sisters teach a select school of day scho- 
lars at the Convent, and another in Fifty-fourth street for 
their own support, so as not to be an expense to their Insti- 
tution. 

The Sisters are a corporate body, holding their own prop- 
erty, and elect annually their board of eight trustees from 
their own number. Archbishop Hughes ordered each Catho- 
lic pastor in New York to collect $500 to assist them in found- 
ing their Institution in 1488, and a number of private dona- 
tions were also received. The Eoman Catholic churches in 
the city continued for several years to take collections for this 
cause, but this is no longer considered necessary. Virtuous 
girls of any age, out of employment, are received into the In- 
stitution, and remain a longer or shorter period, according to 
circumstances. Machine and hand sewing, embroidery, and 
laundry wo]-k, form the chief employment of the inmates. 
Many young females from other countries, just landing on 
our shores, with little or no means, have been picked up by 
this society and raised to industry and respectability, who 
would otherwise have soon sunken into pits of infamy. Since 
the opening of the Institution, over eleven thousand girls have 
been admitted, and the Sisters have found places of employ- 
ment for about twenty thousand. This last number includes 
some from the House of Protection at West Farms, and 
many who have not been received into either institution. 
The earnings of the girls go toward the support of the Insti- 
tution, deficiencies being provided for by private and public 
donations, and by fairs. The Institution has accommodations 



346 NEW YORK AND ITS rNSTITUTIONS. 

for about seventy-five, though in times of great d( atitution 
one hundred and twenty have been crowded into it. 

The Sisters do also a vast amount of outside visiting every 
year. Clad in their sable habit, they glide like shadows through 
the crowded streets, finding their way to abodes of sickness 
and poverty in garrets and cellars. They search the prisons 
of this and of neighboring cities, " prepare " the Catholic 
culprit for the scaffold, administer as far as means will permit 
to the wants of the destitute, and prepare for the sacraments 
ten times more children than the same number of priests. 
However much one may criticise their work, or pity their 
delusions, they are certainly abundant in self-sacrifices, untir- 
ing in toil, and rank among the best of their denomination. 
They are well informed, especially in matters of their own 
church, polite in their attentions to literary visitors, and if 
disrobed of the habit of the order, and dressed for the draw- 
ing-room, a few of them would be pronoimced handsome. 

For several years past the Sisters have been engaged in the 
erection of a building for an " Industrial School for the Des- 
titute Children of Soldiers and Others." This was finally 
completed and occupied in the autumn of 1869, It stands on 
a block of ground contributed by the authorities, bounded by 
Madison and Fourth avenues, Eighty-first and Eighty-second 
streets. It is situated on high ground, is an imposing four- 
story-and-attic structure, in the Gothic order, with stone cop- 
ings, and has accommodations for five hundred children. It 
has a front of one hundred and sixty feet, a depth of sixty, 
and a rear extension for the engine which heats the building, 
for wash-room, laundry, and other conveniences. It cost, with 
its furniture, $180,000, $105,000 of which were contributed by 
the State, always liberal to prodigality to the Institutions of 
Koman Catholics. It had at our visit to it, February 22d, 
1870, 80 children. The children of soldiers are to be taken 
free, as are all others twelve years of age, some pay or cloth- 
ing being required with those received at an earlier age. 



ORPHAN ASYLUM OF ST. VINCENT DE PAUL. 

{Thirty -ninth street^ near Seventh avenue.) 

.cUipHE society by which this Institution has been estab- 
'C\^ lished began its work in the year 1859, in a hired 
^^^ house in W est Twenty-sixth street, where it continued 
until January, 1870. The building was capable of 
accommodating sixty girls and thirty boys, and was always 
well filled. A band of Catholic females (fourteen at present), 
known as the Sisters of the Holy Cross, whose Mother House 
is in the north of France, have had charge of the Asylum 
from the first, instructing the children, and performing all 
the labor of the household. Several years since, the man- 
agers purchased several valuable lots of ground, situated on 
Thirty-ninth street, near Seventh avenue, at a cost of $38,000. 
In 1868 the first half of the Asylum was begun, and sufticfent- 
ly completed to become tenantable early in January, 1870. 
The portion erected is sixty feet square, leaving space for an 
addition of the same size, which will doubtless be added at 
no distant day. The building is a French Gothic, constructed 
of pressed brick, with Ohio free-stone trimmings, is five stories 
above the basement, including two attic Mansard stories. 
The kitchen, laundry, and children's dining-room are in the 
basement. The first floor contains reception-room, parlor, 
dining-room for the sisters, and the large sewing-room where 
the girls are taught needle-work. The upper stories are 
appropriately divided between school-rooms, dormitories, and 
storerooms. The building, which is a model of neatness and 
taste, has thus far cost $74,000, and when completed will be 
an architectural ornament to that portion of the city. The 
cut represents the building as it will appear when fully com- 
pleted. The children represent, in their nationality, Italy, 
Germany, Poland, England, Ireland, Portugal, Sweden, 
France, and America. They are taken from any country, of 
any religion, and at any age not below four years, and are 
retained, the boys until they are eleven or twelve, and the 
girls until they are sixteen. The English text-books employed 
in the public schools are used, to which are added a course 
of study in French, the Catholic catechism, etc. The girls 
are all taught trades, and fitted for self-maintenance when 



348 NEW YORK AJSnO ITS mSTTTUTIONS. 

they leave the Institution. The Asylum has at present nearly 
two hundred children, and when completed will afford space 
for about four hundred. A donation of $15,000 was last year 
received from the city. The ladies in charge, though not 
fluent in English, are prepossessing in appearance, polite to 
visitors, and Reserving of credit for the order and vigor with 
which their affairs are conducted. 




ROMAN CATHOLIC PROTECTORY (BOYS' BUILDING). 

SOCIETY FOR THE PROTECTION OF DESTITUTE ROMAN CATH- 
OLIC CHILDREN. 

{West Farms.) 

The plan for organizing this Society, and founding this 
Institution, originated with the late Levi Silliman Ives, D.D., 
LL.D., formerly bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church 
of North Carolina, but who joined the Roman Catholics 
while on a visit to Rome, in 1852. The act of incorporation 
passed the Legislature April 14, 1863, making it the duty of 
the courts that " whenever the parent, guardian, or next of 
kin of any Catholic child about to be finally committed 
shall request the magistrate to commit the child to the Cath- 
olic Institution, the magistrate shall grant the request." 

The management of this Institution is committed to a 
board of about twenty-five laymen of the Roman Catholic 
church, the Mayor, Recorder, and Comptroller of New York 
being annually added as members ex officio. The Society began 
its labors soon after its organization, in a hired house in the 
upper part of the city, receiving at first only boys ; but after a 



350 NEW TOBK AND ITS mSTITrmONS. 

few months a girls' department was added. Their first plan 
was to apprentice the children after a very short detention 
at the Protectory, but their Third Annual Eeport pronounces 
the apprenticeship system, as then practised, a " great evil" 
and for two reasons: 1. Because the children were not pre- 
pared by previous discipline and education to ensure content- 
ment, obedience, and fidelity. 2, That the avarice of the 
persons to whom they were apprenticed caused most of them 
to be overworked, their education neglected, and the neces- 
sary supplies of food and clothing withheld. Three-fourths 
of those apprenticed up to that time, it was stated, had " be- 
come perfectly worthless." The crowded condition of their 
buildings, and the manifest necessity of retaining the chil- 
dren until sober and industrious habits had been formed, 
induced the managers to purchase a farm of one hundred 
and fourteen acres (since increased to one hundred and forty 
acres), at West Farms, three miles above Harlem bridge. On 
the first of May, 1866, their lease having expired at York- 
ville, the family of four hundred boys was transferred to 
West Farms, and quartered in farm-houses, and such other 
buildings as could be secured, until a wing of the present 
building could be completed. This wing was greatly crowded 
for two years previous to the completion of the main build- 
ing, seven hundred or eight hundred boys, with their over- 
seers and instructors, having constantly occupied it, it fur- 
nishing all their apartments, besides appropriating space for 
workshops, oflices, etc. The main structure is now com- 
pleted. The original wing is two hundred and fifteen feet 
long, forty feet wide, and ^our stories high, while the front 
and main edifice, which forms a transept or colossal cross, 
presents a handsome f a9ade of two hundred and thirty feet, is 
fifty feet wide, and five stories high, with attic. It is a truly 
imposing structure, surmounted by a lofty tower, is built of 
brick, with marble trimmings, in the French Gothic style of 
architecture, and cost $350,000. They are now able to in- 
crease the family of boys to about twelve hundred, and afford 
them much better accommodations than ever before. 

The boys are wholly committed to the control and educa- 
tion of the Christian Brothers, belonging to the society origin- 
ally organized in France by Jean Baptiste De La Salle, in 
1681. They are a society of laymen organized for the gratui- 
tous education of the poor, giving themselves wholly to the 
church as teachers, laboring, wherever appointed, with a salary 



SOCIETY FOE PEOTECTION OF ROMAN CATHOLIC CHILDREN. 351 

j ast gufficient to meet their expenses. When they take the 
vows of the order they renounce all plans of business, and all 
thoughts of entering the priesthood. In 1844 some of the 
fraternity emigrated to Canada, and in 1847 found their way 
into the United States. Brother Teliow, the Rector (superin- 
tendent), an educated Prussian, a gentlemen of modest bear- 
ing, but of wise and decided administrative ability, has had 
control of the House since its opening. He is assisted by 
twenty-two of the brothers, who eat and sleep in the rooms 
with the boys, superintend their toil and studies, attend them 
at worship^ and in their recreations. The brothers are 
usually mild and generous in their treatment, seldom inflict- 
ing corporal punishment, but more wisely appealing to their 
honor and interests, Neither the grounds nor the buildings 
have any formidable enclosures, and the boys are often sent 
to the village, and sometimes to New York, entrusted with 
horses and other responsible matters. True, some forget to 
return, but the policy of trusting them is believed to do 
immensely more good than evil, and when one absconds a 
hundred are ready to volunteer as detectives, to compel his 
return. They carry on the manufacture of ladies', misses', and 
children's shoes on quite a large scale, the boys mastering 
every branch of the business, though this has not yet been 
made as remunerative as at the House of Refuge. Particular 
attention is paid to agricultm-al and horticultural pursuits, and 
some are employed in the manufacture of hoop-skirts, others 
in tailoring, baking, and printing. They manufacture their 
own gas, do all their kitchen and laundry work, so that celi- 
bacy here is a practical thing, from superior to minion. The 
boys make the shoes for the girls' department, but ask and 
receive no favors in return. Their ages vary from five to 
seventeen years, a large portion of them being quite young 
and mostly of Irish parentage. Nearly one-half are unable 
to read when committed, but, several hours per day being 
always devoted to study, many attain to respectable scholar- 
ship, and a few enter upon the study of the classics. Music 
is also taught. There are no definite rules governing the 
period of detention. Most of them are returned to their par- 
ents, and many return the second time to the Institution. 
Parents who have neglected children to their ruin, rarely ex- 
hibit much improvement on a second trial. 

About one hundred and fifty yards from the premises just 
described stands the girls' building, two hundred and sixty- 



352 



NEW YORK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS 



nine feet long, varying in width from forty-five to seventy 
feet. It is built in the Romanesque style, with high basement 
and three stories of brick, and two attic stories of wood and 
slate. Its foundation stone was laid July 4:th, 1868, and was 
sufficiently completed to receive its inmates November 1, 
1869. It is admirably adapted to its use, and cost over 




ROMAN CATHOLIC PROTECTORY (GIRLS' BUILDING). 



$200,000, though it is but about half the size of the original 
design. The cut represents the building as it is, whereas the 
one in the City Manual presents the one in prospect. The 
basement contains the kitchen, dining-room, laundry, furnace- 
room for heating the building, etc. The cooking is done with 
steam. The first fioor contains reception rooms, ofl5ces, 
work-rooms, etc. ; the second is divided into a series of 
school-rooms, with folding partitions, so arranged that the 
whole can be thrown into a vast hall for religious exercises, 
with seating for two thousand persons. The third floor is 
the dorrnitory, with three hundred and fifty beds, a row of 
cells being constructed at each end of the room for the 
accommodation of the Sisters. The fourth floor is divided into 
several dormitories arranged for hospital purposes, with baths 
and closets, and is supplied with hot and cold water. The 
fifth is for storage. The management of the girls' depart- 
ment is committed to the Sisters of Charity of Mount Saint 
Vincent Convent, twelve of whom, when we visited the Insti- 



SOCIETY FOR PKOTECTION OF EOM^iN CATHOLIC CEILDEEN. 353^^ 

tntion, had charge of its family of two hundred and fifty 
girls, and taught all branches of stndy and toil, except a few 
intricacies of skirt-making and handicraft. The girls, like 
the boys, are nearly all received fi'om the courts, as vagrants 
or criminals, are ignorant and spoiled children, and make 
large demands on the patience of their teachers. Their new 
building has accommodations for six hundred inmates, which 
will doubtless soon be filled without making any appreciable 
change in the seething masses of the great city. Skirt-making 
is the principal employment of the girls, each being taught 
every part of the business, and each in turn takes her part in 
the duties of the kitchen, laundry, and chamber. During 
the first seven years of its operations the society received over 
three thousand five hundred truant children, many of whom 
have been recovered from a life of crime, and now bid fair 
to be industrious and good citizens. Its work, however, has 
but just begun. 

The buildings are large and beautiful, but everything 
around and within gives evidence of great economy. But 
while the children at the House of Relnge are supported at 
an annual expense of less than seventy dollars ^eT cajpita above 
their own toil, the managers of this Institution declared that 
during 1867 the net cost of maintaining the boys, exclusive of 
their own labor, the interest on land, buildings, etc., was one 
hundred and thirteen dollars per head, and ninety-six dollars 
for the girls. The entire expenditures of the Societv, up to 
January, 1868, amounted to $469,034.02, of which $164,807.49 
had been given by State and city grants, the remaining 
$304,226.53 having been provided by private donations, the 
labor of the children, and by public fairs, one of which, in 
1867, yielded a profit of over $100,000. We have been unable 
to obtain the last published report of the Society. 

The principal motive in founding the Institution was to 
save the children of Catholics from the influence of Protest- 
antism, which prevailed in most other institutions. It, how- 
ever, makes no attempt to proselyte, and has refused to receive 
some children who had Protestant parents or guardians. The 
farm cost $60,000, and is now valued at $150,000. A dairy 
of forty cows is kept, and most of the vegetables consumed 
are grown on the premises. 




THE NEW YORK FOUNDLING ASYLUM. 

{Lexington avenue and Sixty-eighth street.) 

jOUXDLING hospitals have beeu common in many 
countries of Europe for several centuries. The first 
is believed to have been established at Milan, in the 
year 787. In the seventeenth century they were 
placed on a common footing with other hospitals in France, 
and in the following century they were established in England. 
More than one hundred and forty are said to exist in France 
at this time, two in Holland, seventeen in Belgium, many in 
Prussia, one of which covers an area of twenty-eight acres. 
The Child's Hospital of New York has received many of 
these stray waifs of humanity for several years past, yet an 
Institution devoted exclusively to this class, founded and man- 
aged on the most open and liberal scale, has been considered 
necessary by many, and has finally beeu established. 

The New York Foundling Asylum was incorporated Octo- 
ber 9, 1869, and a hired brick edifice, No. 17 East Twelfth 
street, was opened two days later, by the Sisters of Charity 
connected with the convent of Mount Saint Vincent, near 
Yonkers. Sister Mary Irene was placed at the head of the 
Institution, and has since been assisted by ten other members 
of the order. The first child was left at the Institution on the 
22d of October, 1869, and up to the 25th of April, 1871, nine- 
teen hundred and sixty had been received, sixty-two per cent, 
of whom had died. The Institution was at length removed to 
No. 3 North Washington square, into a large building contain- 
ing twenty-eight fine rooms, where it will remain until the 
Hospital is erected. A cradle is placed in the vestibule where 
the little stranger is silently deposited, and a ring of the bell 
announces its presence. They are brought in by physicians, 
nurses, mid wives, and mothers, at all hours of day and night. 
The children are numbered according to their admission ; their 
names and those of their parents, if known, are entered in a 
large book kept for that purpose, but if nothing is known of 
them they are named by the Sisters. Sometimes a letter ac- 
companies a child, the contents of which are entered with the 
number and name of the infant. Sometimes a ring, a ribbon, 
or some other little valuable by which it may hereafter be iden- 




IIospiTAL OF Saint Fkancis. (East Fifth Street, bet. Avenues A & B.) 




iST. Joseph Orphan Astlum. (Corner Eighty-ninth Street and Avenue A.) 



THE NEW YORK FOUITOLES'^G ASYLUM. 355 

tified accompanies it ; these are all numbered and preserved. 
Infants are taken without charge or fee, without regard to 
color, nationality, or parentage. No questions are asked unless 
there is a disposition to communicate, and statements made 
are not disclosed. The cradles are long, with a babe at each 
end, and an attendant to every three children or a little less, 
some of whom are on duty in every room at all hours of day 
and night. The author looked through the several apart- 
ments at the half-a-hundred little creatures scattered in cribs, 
on the floor, in the arms of the nurses, some laughing, some 
crying, some asleep in blissful ignorance of the clouds that 
darken their infant horizon, and concluded there were 
as many handsome babies among them as could be selected 
from an equal niunber in any community. Children are 
given out to healthy women to nurse, who are remunerated at 
the rate of ten dollars per month. These nurses are required 
to bring the children to the Institution twice each month for 
inspection, and are frequently visited at their homes by the 
Sisters. The Sisters refuse to adopt them even in the best 
families, which we pronounce a decided mistake. Certainly, 
if charity to the children only influenced the movement, 
nothing better could be hoped ior than to see them adopted 
into respectable families. 

During the last year a part of the children have been housed 
at West Farms, the house in the city serving as a place of re- 
ception. More than four hundred different women have been 
employed as nurses, and the superioress reports the expendi- 
tures of the Institution as exceeding $6,000 per month. 

The city authorities last year leased the Asylum, for ninety- 
nine years, for the amiual rental of one dollar, a plot of 
ground two hundred by four hundred feet, lying between 
Sixty-eighth and Sixty-ninth streets, and fronting on Lexing- 
ton avenue. The tax levy of 1870 also contained a clause 
granting the managers one hundred thousand dollars toward 
the erection of buildings as soon as a similar sum should be 
collected by private subscription. 

A grand metropolitan fair was accordingly planned and 
held in the Twenty-second Regiment Armory hall during 
November, 1870, the proceeds of which amounted to over 
$71,000. Mrs. R B. Connolly also collected $20,575, which, 
with some other subscriptions, brought the sum to the required 
figure, so that the legislative appropriation became available. 
This Foundling Hospital is now rapidly rising to completion. 



356 NEW TOKK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS. 

The Sisters are very enthusiastic about their enterprise. Pre- 
cisely what effect the establishment of this Institution will 
have upon the dissolute portion of society is yet to be seen ; 
but that the crime of infanticide has been already greatly 
lessened appears from the police statistics. From one hun- 
dred to one hundred and fifty dead infants per month were 
before the opening of this Institution found in barrels and 
vacant lots, in various parts of the city, whereas not more 
than one-tenth of that number are now reported. That it 
will greatly increase the social crime, we hardly believe. This 
has existed in all ages, unawed by shame, law, and other con- 
sequences, and will only decrease as the principles of a pure 
religion are more generally and more thoroughly imbibed. 




THE SHEPHERD'S FOLD. 

(Eighty-sixth street and Second avenue.) 



I HIS association, composed of members of the Protest- 
ant Episcopal church, was incorporated under the 
general act of April 12, 1848, on the ninth day of 
March, 1868. The object of the society, as set forth 
in the certificate of incorporation, is " The care of orphan, 
half-orphan, and otherwise friendless children." The object 
is similar to that of the " Sheltering Arms," to provide for a 
class of children who, through drunkenness, desertion, crime, 
or other causes, are practically parentless, yet excluded by 
rule from regular Orphan Asylums. The management of 
the Institution is committed to a board of twenty-one trustees, 
nearly half of whom are ministers. The internal manage- 
ment of the house is under the immediate supervision of an 
association of ladies, who report monthly to the executive 
committee appointed by the trustees. Children are admitted 
at any age between twelve months and fifteen years, but 
must be surrendered to the Institution at admission, unless 
they are temporarily admitted, to assist a poor parent, at four 
dollai-s per month. 

An advisory committee, consisting of two gentlemen and 
three ladies, meets every Monday, at three p.m., for the ad- 



WOMAN S AID SOCIETY. 357 

mission and indenturing of cliildren. The operations of the 
society began in Twenty-eighth street, after wliich the Insti- 
tution was removed to Second avenue, between Fiftv-first 
and Fifty-second streets. On the 29th of April, 1S70, it was 
again removed to its present location, corner of Eighty-sixth 
street and Second avenue, where a three-story wood cottage, 
with a wing, was leased for five years. The building stands 
on an eminence and is surrounded by ample grounds, with a 
broad lawn in front overspread with the branches of no])le 
trees. The location is both healthful and beautiful, affording 
abundant space for the recreation of the children. The 
managers hope to secure the means and purchase the pi-op- 
erty, after which they purpose to erect buildings similar to 
those known as the Colored Orphan Asylum. The city 
authorities gave them last year $5,000, which sum has l)een 
set apart as the beginning of a building fund. The Institu- 
tion has at present sixty-three children, all it can well accom- 
modate. The matron, Mrs. Russell, has great skill and kind- 
ness in the management of children ; and the teacher. Miss 
Welsh, has managed to throw such a charm around the 
school-room that many of the children prefer their lessons to 
play. May the Institution prosper, gathering thousands into 
its elevating fold who would otherwise ramble in ignorance 
and infamy, proving a sorrow to themselves and a scourge to 
society. 



WOMAN'S AID SOCIETY AND HOME FOR TRAINING YOUNG 
GIRLS. 

(Comer TJdrteenth street and Seventh avenue.) 



'IIIS organization was first known as the "Women's 
•*^^^ Evangelical Mission," and was formed to operate for 
>ftj^^ the recovery of young women in our public institu- 
tions, and for other fallen women who needed assist- 
ance in their efforts for reformation. At a later period it 
was changed to a home for training young, indigent, and 
inexperienced girls for places of respectability and useful- 
ness, and the class the managers first sought to reach have 
been entirely excluded. The inmates received are between 



358 NEW YORK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS. 

the ages of thirteen and twenty-five, with a few exceptional 
cases^ Many of those received during the last three years 
have been orphans, or friendless girls exhausted by hard 
service, and nearly ready to perish. In this Home their 
health has been recruited, their morals improved, a situation 
in a Christian family in city or country has be'en provided, 
where they have gone with better prospects. 

All persons admitted as inmates must pledge to obey the 
rules of the house, to remain a month, and accept of such 
situations on leaving as the matron shall approve. The 
Society is governed by a board of female managers, members 
of the*^ several Evangelical churches, ncai'ly all of whom thus 
far have represented the Presbyterian and Eeformed Dutch. 
The missionary and chaplain is an Evangelical minister, 
whose duty it is to preach on the island, if necessary, besides 
conducting the services of the Home. From May, 1868,^ to 
1870, the "Home was situated at the foot of Eighty-third 
street, East river, in a fine old family mansion, with invit- 
ing groves, ample and well-arranged grounds. The location 
was one of the most retired, airy, and salubrious on the 
island. The number of inmates has varied from twenty- 
four to thirty-six during the past three years, 152 being the 
total for the year closing in 1869, and 114 for the year end- 
ing in 1870. During the year closing January, 1871, the 
managers report 188 admissions, 141 of whom were placed 
in families, seven returned to friends, nine sent to other 
institutions, eight were dismissed, six left at their own 
request, and fifteen remained. Some were inexperienced 
young girls, members of good families, but, chafing under 
necessary parental restraint, had sought relief in flight. The 
managers had picked them up just in time to save them. 

The Home is now situated at No. 41 Seventh avenue, cor- 
ner of Thirteenth street, where a four-story brick house has 
been leased for three years, at an annual rental of $2,000. 
The building affords accommodations for about thirty in- 
mates. A school is conducted every afternoon. 

The Society was incorporated under the general act passed 
April 12, 1848, on the twenty-fifth day of November, 1870. 

The expenditures of the Institution during the last year 
amounted to $7,180.76. Kev. W. A. Masker is the chaplain 
and superintendent, and Mrs. Masker the matron. 




ST. JOSEPH ORPHAN ASYLUM. 
( Corner of Eighty-ninth street and Avenue A. 

HE St. Joseph Orphan Asyhim was incorporated by 
_ special act of the Legislature in 1859. It was founded 
t^^^jl through the laudable toil and zeal of Rev. Father 
Joseph Helmpraecht, a Roman Catholic priest. The 
building was erected in 1860, and is a live-story brick, eighty 
by forty feet, fronting oa Eighty -ninth street, at the corner of 
Avenue A. The stories of the building are rather low. The 
object of the Institution is the support and education of or- 
phans, half-orphans, destitute and neglected children, con- 
nected with the Roman Catholic faith and of German origin. 
The number of inmates averages about one hundred and 
sixty, and the capacity of the Asylum is equal to about two 
hundred inmates. 

The office of the Asylum and secretary is at No. 70 East 
Fourth street. 




THE ROOSEVELT HOSPITAL. 



( West Fifty-ninth street.) 

This Institution was founded and endowed by the bequest 
of the late James H. Roosevelt, Esq., of New York city. This 
gentleman inherited a fine estate from his parents, which he 
very materially increased during his lifetime, and finally 
bequeathed it to the founding of one of the most humane and 
excellent charities of the world. During his early years he 
pursued the study of law, graduating with honor after pass- 
ing the usual course at Columbia College. Some time after 
his graduation he was admitted to practice, and expected to 
marry Miss Julia Maria Boardman, an estimable lady of this 
city. But one month had scarcely elapsed, after his admission 
to practise law, ere he was smitten with a stroke of paralysis 
so severe as to entirely frustrate his most cherished earthly 
plans, and render him an invalid for life. For more than 
thirty years he could only walk with the aid of crutches, 



THE ROOSEVELT HOSPITAL. 361 

spending most of the time at his residence in New York, shut 
out by liis infirmities from the chief circles of business and 
fashion. During these years Jie gave quiet attention to the 
improvement of "his fortune, to books, and the cultivation of 
those tempers so invaluable in time and eternity. Though 
he never married, the most affectionate relation subsisted be- 
tween him and the lady of his early choice through all his 
years, to whom he left at death, which occurred in November, 
1863, an annuity of $4,000, making her also the executrix of 
his estate. His estate at his death, which approximated a 
million, and has since been much increased, consisted in real 
estate situated in New York and Westchester counties, and 
in vahiable and available stocks. A sufferer through most of 
his life, his mind was naturally drawn out in sympathy for 
those as afflicted as himself, and whose condition was even 
more pitiable because destitute of the means of comfort he 
enjoyed. Most of his personal estate he therefore left " in 
trust to the several and successive presidents ex officio, for the 
time being, of the respective managing boards of those five 
certain incorporations in the city of New York, known as 
' The Society of the New York 'Hospital,' ' The College of 
Physicians and Surgeons,' ' The New York Eye Infirmary,' 
^ The Demilt Dispensary,' and ' The New York Institution 
for the Blind,' and to the Honorable James I. Roosevelt, 
Edwin Clark, Esq., John M. Knox, Esq., and Adrian II. Mul- 
ler, Esq., all of New York, for the establishment, in the city of 
New York, of a hospital for the reception and relief of sick 
and diseased persons, and for its pei-manent endowment." 
This board of nine trustees has sole charge of the Institution 
and its endowment, and has power to fill all vacancies occur- 
ring from death, resignation, or otherwise, of any of the four 
trustees not before designated by title of office, from male 
native-born citizens, residents of the city of New York. The 
nse of his real estate he bequeathed to his nephew, James C. 
Roosevelt Brown, of Rye, N. Y., the same to be also divided 
equally between his heirs, but in case of his or their demise 
without lawful issue, then the same was to be disposed of by 
his executors, and the proceeds added to the Hospital endow- 
ment. This nephew survived him but forty days, and died 
without issue, leaving the property to the Institution to which 
his uncle had devoted it. 

The act incorporating the Roosevelt Hospital was passed 
by the Legislature February 2, 1864:, granting the corpora- 



362 NEW YORK AND ITS mSTITIITIONS. 

tion power to receive the legacy, and any others that might 
be added, to purchase and hold property free from taxation 
in carrying out the directions of the founder of the Institu- 
tion. In 1868 a whole block of ground was purchased lying 
between Fifty-eighth and Fifty-ninth streets, Ninth and Tenth 
avenues, for the sum of $185,000. This ground is now valued 
at $400,000. The corner-stone of the Hospital was laid on 
the last day of October, 1869, Rev. Thomas De Witt, D.D., 
Edward Delafield, M.D., and other distinguished gentlemen, 
taking part in the services. When the usual contributions of 
papers, etc., had- been placed in the corner-stone. Dr. Delafield, 
president of the board, moved it to its place, saying, " I now 
lay the corner-stone of the Roosevelt Hospital, and may cen- 
turies pass before what is deposited here will again be re- 
vealed to mortal eye." 

The Hospital fronts on Fifty-ninth street, and is to consist, if 
the plan is ever entirely completed, of four pavilions, each 
one hundred and seventy feet long by thirty wide in the cen- 
tral part forming the wards, and a front of fifty-six feet on 
Fifty-ninth street. The pavilions are to be three stories 
high, of brick, with rich stone trimmings, above a high 
stone basement, covered with Mansard roof. The wards 
are each thirty feet wide by ninety-three long, and 
fifteen feet high, arranged for twenty-eight patients each, 
affording 1,494 cubic feet of space to each. The base- 
ment of the one now erected contains an ophthalmic, a 
children's, and an accident ward, and some small rooms for 
delirious patients. The main stairways are all to be of iron 
and stone. Ventilating shafts are to be placed at the end of 
each ward, to carry oil foul air and introduce fresh. The 
lavatories, supplied with vapor baths, shower baths, basins, 
etc., are situated at the southern end of the pavilions, sepa- 
rated from the wards by wide halls. In the center of the block 
fronting on Fifty-ninth street is the administration building, 
through which is the entrance to the Hospital. This building 
contains the ofiices and apartments for ofiicers, the apothecary 
room, chemical laboratory, etc. In the rear of this stands 
another separate building, containing the kitchen, laundry, the 
heating and ventilating apparatus. This and the pavilion 
before described are now completed and the other central 
pavilion and the administration building will soon follow, 
furnishing accommodations for six hundred patients, and 
costing about $600,000. These can be completed, leaving an 



THE KOOSEVELT HOSPITAL. 363 

endowment fund of at least $600,000 for the support of the 
Institution. It is likely that this is as far as the building 
plan will be carried, unless other legacies are added to the 
enterprise. The site is an elevated and beautiful one over- 
looking the Hudson, and as most of the hospitals have been 
erected on the eastern side of the island, the selection appears 
to have been well made. The locality will soon be crowded 
with a dense population, that will need the liberal provisions 
of this generous benefactor. 




THE PRESBYTERIAN HOSPITAL IN THE CITY OF NEW YORK. 



{East Seventieth street.) 

On the second day of January, 1868, Mr, James Lenox, a 
distinguished member of tlie Presbyterian Church of New 
York, addressed a circular letter to a number of gentlemen 
of his own denomination, setting forth the fact that while 
the Jews, the Germans, the Roman Catholics, and the Epis- 
copalians had each established a hospital for themselves, the 
large and influential body of Presbyterians had undertaken 
nothing of the kind. The envelope contained the draft of 
an act of incorporation, and of a constitution. The circular 
further declared that a large and eligible plot of ground, 
and funds to the amomit of $100,000, would be made over to 
the managers if the enterprise were undertaken. The gen- 
tlemen addressed were severally invited to act as managers, 
and informed that a public meeting would be called to fully 
inaugurate the movement as soon as their concurrence was 
secured. The letter, with its munificent proposals, received 
prompt and encouraging replies, and on the 13th of January, 
1868, a meeting of tliese gentlemen was held in the lecture 
room of the First Presbyterian church, when a temporary 
organization was effected. On the 28tli of February, 1868, 
the Legislature passed the act of incorporation, authorizing 
the Institution to hold real estate and personal property to 



THE PRESBYTERIAN HOSPITAL. 365 

any amount, free from taxation. On the 2Gtli day of March, 
the board of managers maturely considered and accepted the 
charter, elected their officers, Mr. Lenox being chosen Presi- 
dent, and the Presbyterian Hospital became a corporate In- 
stitution. On the 17th of June, Mr. Lenox conveyed in due 
form to the board of managers, for Hospital uses, tlie block of 
ground lying between Seventieth and Seventy-first streets, 
Fourth and Madison avenues, valued at two hundred and 
fifty thousand dollars, to which he added the princely sum of 
two hundred and fifty thousand dollars in money, paying the 
exorbitant governmental snccession tax on the transfer of the 
property of twelve thousand dollars. The site so generously 
contributed is ample in extent, in the vicinity of Central 
Park, and is considered one of the most salubrious and eli- 
gible on the island. The recent developments in medical 
science and hospital hj^giene have so greatly modified 
former theories that, by protracted consideration of the sub- 
ject, the managers hope to avc)id the mistakes into which 
others have fallen. The sum of $1,300 was expended in ob- 
taining designs from several distinguished architects, and the 
one adopted it is believed will secure all known advantages. 
The Hospital, which is nearly completed, consists of three 
l^avilions, an administration building, and a boiler-house, all 
connected in the basement, first and second stories, by corri- 
dors of light construction. All the buildings (except the 
boiler-house) are three stories high, and attic in Mansard roof, 
with accommodations for three hundred patients. 

The first story and attic will be twelve feet high, respect- 
ively ; the height of the second and third stories will be four- 
teen feet and six inches in the clear. The basement story of 
pavilions will be devoted to the accommodation of hot-air 
chambers, engine-rooms, fan-rooms, etc. The first floors of 
pavilions will be occupied by private wards, with all their 
necessary accessories, while the three upper stories will con- 
tain the public wards. 

A spacious and w-ell-lighted amphitheater (for surgical op- 
erations) will occupy the third and fourth stories of the mid- 
dle portion of the north pavilion in the rear. The dead-rooms 
"will be located in vaulted chambers, just outside, and in the 
rear of this pavilion. The administration building, one of 
the three central buildings, fifty feet by ninety-two feet, has 
the middle portion projecting, in order to gain a carriage- 
porch to main entrance, above which is located the chapel 



366 NEW TOEK AND ITS INSTITTJTI0N8. 

with its spire. Side-entrance porches are also provided. 
The basement of this building contain the kitchen (which 
extends through to the second floor), the bakery, scullery, 
larder, ice, bread, and store rooms. 

Special care has been given to the subjects of heating and 
ventilation. The wards are heated by indirect radiation ; the 
remainder by direct radiation. The outer walls of pavilions 
are double, with an air-space between them. The ventilating 
and heating flues of glazed earthen-pipe are built in the inner 
wall, having openings provided with controlling registers at 
the top, bottom, and" midway between the floor and the ceil- 
ing of the rooms. The fresh air is conducted through shafts 
from the top of the buildings to the fan-room in the base- 
ment, whence it is driven to the coil-chambers, which supply 
the air to rooms above. Other flues conduct the foul air to 
the lofts above attic stories, where they all unite in spacious 
ventilating lanterns, heated by steam-coils. The windows, 
extending" from three feet above the floor to the ceiling, are 
provided with double sashes, for direct ventilation, without 
exposing the patients to currents of air. 

As regards the exterior elevations, the architectural effect is 
the result obtained by accentuating certain prominent feat- 
ures existing in the plan, in a quiet manner, and in using the 
materials, Philadelphia brick and Lockport limestone, accord- 
ing to sound rules of construction. 

To the princely liberality of Mr. Lenox many large and 
small subscriptions have been added by the friends of the 
enterprise in New York, Messrs. Robert L. & A. Stewart con- 
tributing fully $50,000. The Hospital will probably be ded- 
icated free from debt, but with inadequate endowment, leav- 
ing ample scope for the further exercise of large liberality. 

The Presbyterian Hospital is one of the grandest benevo- 
lent enterprises of our times, and eminently worthy of the 
enlightened and generous denomination that has established 
it. The annual reports of the Institution, replete with his- 
toric learning, are model publications of their kind, and wor- 
thy of permanent preservation. 



ST. LUKE'S HOSPITAL. 

{Fifth avenue and Fifty-fourth street.) 

ISTthe year 1846 the Rev. W. A. Mulenberg, D.D., pas- 
tor of the Church of the Holy Communion, deeply im- 
^^ pressed with the neglect of the church generally in 
U3 making no adequate provision for her sick poor, and 
believing that a hospital, conducted on more strictly religious 
principles than any in the city at the time, was greatly needed, 

Presented the subject to his congregation at the festival of St. 
lUke, and informed them that with their consent he would set 
apart a portion of their collection that day toward the begin- 
ning of a Church Hospital. Thirty dollars were accordingly 
laid aside, and on the return of the festival the next year an- 
other collection was taken, A parochial institution only was 
contemplated for several years, but as the enterprise came to be 
known it met with such unexpected favor, that its friends re- 
solved to lay the matter before the Episcopalians of the city 
at large. In the winter of 1850 the two lectures previously 
delivered by Dr. Mulenberg in the Church of the Holy 
Communion were repeated in St. Paul's Chapel, and after- 
wards printed and widely circulated. On the first day of May, 

1850, the St. Luke's Hospital was incorporated under the 
general act of Legislature passed April 12, 1848, committing 
the control of the Institution to thirteen managers. In March, 

1851, the Legislature amended the charter, increasing the num- 
ber of managers to thirty-one ; and in February, 1854, it was 
again amended, granting the corporation permission to hold 
personal estate to the amount of $250,000, and real estate not 
exceeding $100,000, over and above the value of buildings 
and improvements erected thereon for the purposes of the 
corporation. About the time of its incorporation the man- 
agers, proposing to carry out their undertaking on a liberal 
scale, appealed to the public for $100,000. This amount was 
soon subscribed, and was mostly given in large sums. An 
eligible site of twenty-four city lots, situated on Fifth avenue 
and Fifty-fourth street, had been previously, for certain con- 
siderations on the part of Trinity Church, granted by the city 
corporation to the Church of St. George tne Martyr, on con- 



568 NEW TOEK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS. 

dition that there should be erected thereon, within three years 
from the date of the grant, a hospital and free chapel lor 
British emigrants. As the buildings had not been erected, 
and the land was soon to revert to the city, the managei-s of 
St. Luke's applied to the authorities for an extension of the 
time, which was finally granted, and after considerable negoti- 
ation the transfer of the title from the Church of St. George 
the Martyr was effected, on condition that the corporation of 
St. George should always be entitled to a certain number of 
free beds in the contemplated Hospital. Eight additional 
lots were also purchased at an average expense of $1,500 
each ; a plan for the building prepared by Mr. John W. Ritch 
was adopted ; and in May, 1854, the corner-stone of the Hos- 
pital was laid, with appropriate services conducted by Bishop 
vYaiuwrigiit. Wlien the building was begun the managers 
only contemplated the erection of the central edifice and one 
wing, but they soon resolved to erect both wings, and accord- 
ingly appealed to the public for an additional hundred thou- 
sand dollars. On Ascension Day, 1857, the chapel, ha\dng 
been completed, was opened for divine service ; and on May 
13, 1858, the Hospital proper was opened for the reception of 
patients. 

The buildings, which form a narrow parallelogram with a 
vring at each end, and a central edifice with towers, front on 
Fifty-fourth street, facing the south, extending longitudinally 
from east to west two hundred and eighty feet. The eleva- 
tions of the several fronts are of square red brick. The cen- 
tral building contains on the fii-st floor the office, the examin- 
ation room, and appropriate apartments for the physician and 
the superintendent. On the second floor is the chapel, the 
distinctive feature of the Hospital, This is rectangular in 
form, eighty-four by tliirty-f(-)ur feet, with a ceiling forty feet 
high. The roof is elliptical, with bold traverse ribs resting 
on corbels. A narrow gallery extends around three sides on 
a level with the floor of the third story, and so supplements 
the audience room that several hundred persons are comfort- 
ably seated at the Sabbath afternoon service. The wards ex- 
tend from the central building in either direction, the western 
wing being devoted to the male, and the eastern to the female 
patients, respectively. One ward is also appropriated to chil- 
dren, and is a very interesting department. The Hospital has 
spacious and airy corridors for the exercise of convalescent 
patients, bath-rooms, closets, and separate apartments for 



ST, LUKES HOSPITAL, 369 

the treatment of the delirious or noisy. The buildings have 
accommodations for over two hundred patients, and have cost, 
with their furniture, about $225,000, A rear building con- 
tains the apparatus for heating the whole edifice with steam, 
the cooking, washing, and drying being performed by the 
same agent. A fan ten feet in diameter for ventilating the 
Hospital is also driven by the same machinery, capable of 
discharging 40,000 cubic feet of air per minute. The same 
machinery carries the water to the tanks in the attic, from 
whence it is distributed through the building. The projector 
of the Institution early conceived that its usefulness would 
be much promoted by placing its wards under the charge of 
a band of Christian women. Under his own pastorate such 
a band had originated in 1845, known as the " Sisters of the 
Holy Communion," being the first community of Protestant 
'.' Sisters of Charity " in this country. They were accordingly 
fitted for the undertaking. The donations of a few wealthy 
friends enabled the Sisters in 1851 to erect a dwelling suited 
to their use adjoining the Church of the Holy Communion ; 
and in 1854 the building adjoining their own was rented, and 
converted into an infirmary, with fifteen beds. Here the 
work of St. Luke's Hospital began, and more than two hun- 
dred patients were treated ere the opening of the Institution 
on Fifty-fourth street. The Sisters have had charge of the 
hospital since its opening, attending to its multiplied toils 
with scrupulous exactness through all these years, with no 
financial compensation. Even their apparel is furnished by 
an arrangement of their own, so that nothing but board is 
received at the Hospital, No vows bind them to their work 
nor to each ether. It is a voluntary association of unmarried 
Christian females, somewhat akin to the Lutheran Deaconesses 
of Kaiserswerth, so well known in the hospitals of Germany 
and Prussia. The Hospital is conducted on the principle of 
a family. The Superintendent, who is also the chaplain, sus- 
taining the relation of falL?:*, and the lady superior that of 
mother, to the inmates. One ot the Sisters has charge of the 
drug department, and saves the Institution annually the wages 
of an apothecary. 

The ministi'ations of the gospel, according to the forms of 
the Protestant Episcopal church, are daily attended to. 
Scriptures and prayers are read in each ward every morning, 
and a service is conducted every evening in the chapel, when 
the doors leading into the long wards are thrown open, and 



370 NEW TOKK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS. 

the large organ breathes forth its melody. The regular 
church service with preaching is conducted every Sabbath 
morning, and in the afternoon the chapel is thrown open to 
the inhabitants of the neighborhood, who attend in large 
numbers upon the preaching of the Word. 

About eight thousand patients have been treated since the 
opening of the Hospital, a small fraction of whom only were 
able to pay their own bills. 

More than thirty beds are now supported by a permanent 
endowment of $3,000 each, and over a score more by annual 
subscriptions of from two hundred to three hundred dollars 
each. The board of the patients was long held at four dol- 
lars per week, but has since been increased to seven dollars 
for adults, and four dollars for children. 

St. Luke's Hospital, situated in a central and wealthy 
neighborhood, with its beautifully cultivated lawns and ele- 
gant surroundings, if managed with the courtesy and skill 
that have hitherto characterized it, will long continue one of 
the finest institutions of the city. 




NEW YORK HOSPITAL. 



New York continned for many years without any adequate 
accommodations for its sick and disabled citizens. Though 
its original city charter was granted in 1686, no serious effort 
appears to have been made toward ])roviding a public hospital 
until 1770. The population of the city at that time amounted to 
over twenty thousand. In that year a number of enterprising 
citizens liberally signed and circulated a subscription for tliis 
purpose. On the 13th of June, 1771, the governor of the 
colony, under George III., granted a charter, in which he 
named the mayor, the recorder, the aldermen and their assis- 
tants of the city, the rector of Trinity Church, one minister 
from each of the other denominations then in the city, the 
president of King (afterwards Columbia) College, and several 
other prominent citizens, as members of the corporation. 
Twenty-six governors were also named for the management 
of the business of the society. The original charter title was 
the " Society of the Hospital in the City of New Yoi-k in 
America," but by an act in 1810 the name w^as changed to 
the " Society of the New York Hospital '' Through the efforts 
of t-wo eminent English physicians, Drs. Fothergill and Dun- 



372 NEW YORK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS. 

can, numerous contributions to the funds of tlie society were 
made by persons of London and elsewhere. The following 
year the provincial Legislature granted it an allowance of £800 
($2,000) per annum for twenty years. Highly^ encouraged 
with these 'prospects of revenue, the governors, in 1773, pur- 
chased five acres of ground in the outskirts of the city, and be- 
gan the erection of the edifice. On the 27th of July, 1773, the 
foundation stone was laid; but on the 28th of February, 1775, 
when the structure was nearly completed, it was accidentally 
destroyed by fire. This sudden misfortune inflicted upon the 
society a loss of over se veuteen thousand dollars, and would have 
entirely paralyzed its efforts had not the Legislature come to its 
assistance with a grant of $10,000. The toil of rebuilding 
began amid the outbursts of the Revolutionary war, and con- 
tinued until the capture of New York by the British, Sep- 
tember 15, 1776. For seven years it was, in its half-fii- 
ished condition, occupied by British and Hessian troops as 
barracks, and occasionally used as a hospital. Independence 
having been secured, work was resumed, and on January 3, 
1791, "it was so far completed that eighteen patients were ad- 
mitted. Its colonial revenue, of course, ceased with the 
breaking out of hostilities, but in 1788 the Legislature directed 
that $2,000 per annum for four years be paid to it from the 
excise funds. The funds of the society were now rapidly 
increased by donations from private citizens, and liberal 
grants from the Legislature. By an act of 1792, $5,000 per 
annum were granted; in 1795 the sum was increased to 
$10,000, and the following year to $15,000 ; subsequently it 
was made $22,500, which amount was paid annually until 
1857. An act of 1822 exempted all the property of the so- 
ciety from taxation. Arrangement was made with the 
United States Government in 1799, which continued until 
recently, Avhereby sick and disabled seamen in this port were 
received, and paid for by the Collector of Customs, at the rate 
of seven dollars per week. 

The Hospital stood until recently on its original site, which 
is the most elevated and eligible one on the lower part of the 
island. Its grounds, wliich were handsomely laid out and 
ornamented with choice shrubbery, covered an entire block. 
They are bounded by Broadway on the east, Chm-ch street 
on the west, on the north by Worth, and on the south by 
Duane streets. 

The central Hospital was a large convenient building of 



NEW YOEK HOSPITAL. ^ 373 

fray stone in the Doric order, with accommodations for two 
undred patients, besides the numerous rooms appropriated 
to business, visitors, surgery, medicine, the resident officers, 
and servants. In 1806, in answer to a growing and general 
desire, a new building termed the South Hospital was erected 
for the treatment of insane patients, and devoted to this use 
until 1821, when this branch was removed to Bloomingdale. 
After the removal of the insane patients, this building was 
devoted to the treatment of seamen, and termed the Marine 
Department. In 1853 it was torn down, and a splendid hos- 
pital erected on its site at a cost of $140,000, with accommo- 
dations for 250 patients. In 1841, on the opposite extreme 
of the grounds, had been reared the North Hospital, with 
accommodations for 100 patients. Froui the time of open- 
ing this Institution, in 1792, to 1856, it is said that 106,111 
patients were admitted, of whom 77,390 were cured, 4,768 
relieved, and 10,893 died. The majority of the latter were 
brought in from the streets in a dying condition. In 1857 
the annual State appropriation of $22,500 ceased by statute 
limitation, after whi(;h the Legislature occasionally responded 
to the urgent appeals of the governors with greatly reduced 
appropriations, nothing being granted after 1866. The city 
government refused any aid, and private donations and be- 
quests were also withheld, through a determination to force 
the governors to lease or sell the valuable grounds around the 
Hospital. During these years, with the rapid increase of our 
population, the number of casualty patients correspondingly 
multiplied. This Hospital, situated so near the crowded cen- 
tres of the metropolis, had always had the larger number of 
these unfortunates, no one of whom was ever rejected, and 
but few of whom -were able to pay, however long and expen- 
sive might be his treatment. The pay patients were also re- 
ceived at little more than half the expense of their support. 
The result was that after the withdrawal of the State annuity 
the governors found their finances continually embarrassed 
and annually growing worse and worse. In 1864, with much 
effort $80,000 were raised by subscription to relieve the over- 
burdened treasury, but 1868 left it still .in debt about 
$100,000. About that time the governors decided to lease 
the grounds and remove the Hospital. In March, 1869, the 
grounds occupied by the main building and North Hospital 
were leased, and in May the patients were removed to the 
South Hospital, where operations were continued until Feb- 



374 NEW YORK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS. 

ruary 1st, 1870, when the old New York Hospital entirely 
suspended. A line of majestic business houses already covers 
most of the premises. The rent of these grounds, when all 
are leased, will probably amount to $200,000 per annum; yet 
it is saddening to see this time-honored Institution, where 
Dr. Valentine Mott devoted his best attentions forty-eight 
years, and where a hundred and fifty thousand patients have 
been treated, crowded into obscurity, when the suffering pop- 
ulation needs its accommodations more than ever, because 
more numerous than in bygone years. It is probable that 
another hospital will be opened by the society somewhere, 
but no plan has yet been agreed upon. The hospital library 
and pathological cabinet rank among the finest of the world, 
and are annually receiving valuable additions. The library 
contains 8,431 volumes. The office of the society is at No. 
13 West Eleventh street. 




HOSPITAL OF SAINT FRANCIS. 
(East Fifth street, between Avenues B and C.) 

I HIS Hospital was founded by the " Sisters of the Poor 
of St. Francis " (an order of Roman Catholic females 
whose mother house is in Germany), in 1865, and in 
1866 the Institution was duly incorporated. 
A brick edifice, fifty feet wide and four stories high, was 
purchased in East Fifth street and converted into a hospital, 
where their operations were conducted until the present sum- 
mer. Lots adjoining this building were purchased in 1869 at 
a cost of $35,000, and a four-story brick strncture, with a 
front of sixty -six feet, was completed last May, at an expense 
of over $40,000. After entering the new building, the Sis- 
ters proceeded to demolish and rebuild the old structure 
immediately adjoining, in the style of the new building, 
though they were heavily in debt on the portion of the struc- 
ture just completed. A small building situated on East Sixth 
street, immediately opposite and connected with the old 
building, contains the patients of extreme age. With the 
completion of the buildings the Sisters expect to have wards 



SAINT VINCENT S HOSPITAL. 375 

for over two hundred patients. Most of those admitted thus 
far have been German or Irish, though persons of any na- 
tionality are received. The great feature of the Institution is, 
that it proposes to be free to nearly all patients admitted. 
The eighteen Sisters not only propose to do all the labor of 
the Hospital with their own hands, but to beg from door to 
door the money to build and support it. This Hospital, though 
young and unknown to most of our citizens, has received 
from the Legislature from $5,000 to $7,000 per annum. It 
is situated in a section of the city where, on the present terms, 
it is certain to be well patronized, and may be a useful Insti- 
tution. Two of the Sisters go out incessantly to gather funds 
and supplies. They claim to have treated eight hundred 
patients annually, thus far, but as they have as yet issued no 
annual report, precise information in relation to the Institu- 
tion is not easily obtained. 




SAINT VINCENT'S HOSPITAL. 

{Comer of Eleventh street and Seventh avenue.) 

'he society for the founding of this Institution was 
organized in 1849, and the Hospital opened the fol- 
lowing year. On the 13th of April, 1857, it was duly 
incorporated l)y act of Legislature, under the legal 
title of the Sisters of '^Charity of St. Vincent de Paul. It 
was first established in Thirteenth street, in a three-story brick 
building so arranged as to accommodate thirty beds. It 
needed but a short time to make known the existence of such 
an institution ; and very soon these accommodations became 
insufficient to meet the increasing demand. The building 
adjoining was then rented and fitted up, and room was there- 
by secured for seventy beds. For a few years this proved 
sufficient, but as the Institution became more widely known, 
even this was found inadequate, and a larger building 1 lecame 
a necessity. Accordingly, the present Hospital, situated on the 
corner of Eleventh street and Seventh avenue, then known 
as the Half-Orphan Asylum, was rented and fitted up. This 



Oib NEW TOKK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS. 

building required extensive alterations and repairs, and was 
also soon found too small. In 1856 the Sisters held a fair in 
the Crystal Palace and realized the handsome sum of thirty- 
four thousand dollars. Their treasury being thus replenished, 
they purchased two adjoining lots, and erected a large wing 
to their building. In 1860 a Floral Festival was held in the 
Palace Gardens, and a sum of nearly twelve thousand dollars 
was realized. The same year an adjoining lot on the opposite 
side of the main building was purchased, and another wing 
erected. The Hospital is situated on high and dry ground, in 
a comparatively retired and quiet portion of that thickly- 
populated part of the city. It is three stories high, with base- 
ment, presenting a front of one hundred and^'lifty feet on 
Eleventh street, the grounds extending through to Twelfth, 
furnishing an ample rear yard for the exercise of convales- 
cents. The Hospital now contains one hundred and fifty beds, 
with space for more if circumstances should so require. It 
is divided into five well-regulated wards, besides which there 
are several well-furnished private apartments for the use of 
persons who require special accommodations or care. 

To clergymen or other persons stopping at hotels, or to 
strangers of means, overtaken suddenly with disease, these 
rooms offer peculiar advantages, combining the comforts of a 
home with the advice and treatment of the Hospital. 

The operating theatre connected with the surgical ward is 
on the third floor of the left wing, the room being furnished 
with a fine skylight in addition to the ordinary windows. 
The entire management of the Institution is conducted by 
fifteen of the Sisters, no female help being employed, and 
no male except the Board of Physicians, and a nurse in each 
of the male wards. The entire edifice is heated with steam, 
and watched over with scrupulous tidiness in every part, 
though on account of its piecemeal construction it is sadly 
wanting in that general design which facilitates labor in its 
management. 

The design of the society at its organization was to make 
it a self-su])porting Institution; hence it existed several years 
without any legal incorporation, or asking any grants from 
the city or State. But the multitude of cluirity patients that 
annually knocked at its doors induced the managers to recon- 
sider and finally change the nature of their enterprise. 

In 1863 the Common Council granted the Hospital $1,000, 
in 1864, $1,000, in 1865, $2,000, in 1867, $2,000, in 186S. 



SAINT Vincent's hospital. 377 

$3,000. The Board of Public Charities, in 1867, alao gave 
it $1,000. The last Legislature gave it $5,000. In 1868 the 
Sisters purchased the main building of their Hospital, which 
up to this had been leased. The entire expense of their build- 
ings and grounds has exceeded seventy thousand dollars, 
upon which there remains an indebtedness of $25,000 se- 
cured by bond and mortgage. 

Mr. Charles Gibbous, several years since, generously pre- 
sented the society with an endowment contribution of $5,000, 
and it is quite remarkable that no wealthy Roman Catholic 
of the country has midertaken to increase the amount. 

The Institution is, of course, distinctly Roman Catholic in 
its management ; pay patients are, however, taken from any 
denomination, and allowed to receive the visits of their own 
spiritual advisers, though the stated services are always con- 
ducted by a Romish priest. 

Patients were admitted for many years at tliree dollars per 
week, always paying one month's board in advance, and free 
beds were granted associations and clubs for $120 per an- 
num. But the greatly augmented cost of carrying on the In- 
stitution, occasioned by the war, led them to increase the price 
to six dollars for males, and five for females per week, and the 
cost of a free bed to $175 per annum. Many charity patients 
are still admitted. In 1859 and 1860 over two hundred of 
this class were admitted, whose average sojourn was six 
months, at an expense of over twelve thousand dollars to the 
Institution. During 1869 nearly two hundred and tif ty were 
treated gratuitously. Since the founding of the Hospital, 
twenty-two years ago, over thirteen thousand patients have 
received treatment within its walls. The larger portion of 
those who have died have been afflicted with pulmonary com- 
plaints. 

It may be doubted whether any hospital in the land is con- 
ducted on more strictly economical principles. The Sisters 
serve for life, with no expense to the Institution save board, 
the mother house, St. Vincent's Convent, furnishing their ap- 
parel. The dispensary is even conducted by one of the Sis- 
ters, thus sa\ing the usual salary of an apothecary. The pub- 
lished report of 1860 showed the amount of wages paid for 
the year to have been $894, and the year closing with 1870 
to have been $2,420.24. The self-imposed penury and patient 
continuance in unrequited, life-long toil, and sleepless vigi- 



378 NEW YORK AND ITS mSTITUTIONS. 

lance for the advancement of the interests of " Mother 
Church," by many Roman Catholics, notwithstanding all 
their erroi*s of faith and practice, present a sublime anomaly 
in the history of the world, and are eminently worthy of 
imitation. 




GERMAN HOSPITAL AND DISPENSARY. 



{Seoenty-sei-rnth street (iiul Fourth avenue.) 

LTntil recently, the hospitals of Xew York have been 
largely patronized and controlled by citizens of foreign na- 
tionalities. Hospitals are much more common in Europe than 
in this country. London alone contains o\er lif ty, many of them 
of a general cliai-acter, averaging about three hunch-ed beds 
each. Americans, for the most })art, prefer to be treated at 
home, even in extreme cases ; but Europeans resort to the 
hos])ital when overtaken with slight illness. The hospitals 
of Europe often treat both the in-door and out-door patients, 
hence the thouo-hts of an invalid are naturally turned toward 
the hospital. It is this early education that has prom])ted so 
many foreigners to plan for a hospital soon after taking up 
their residence in an American city. " The German Hospital 
of the City of New York " was incor[3orated by the Legisla- 
ture April 13th, 1861, and its first board of directors was 
organized February 15th, 1802. A subscription, opened in 
1801, slumbered through several years. The treasurer's report 
shows that up to 1865 less than $14,000 had been received. 



3S0 NEW YOKK AND ITS INST1TUTI0^'S. 

The subscriptions of 186G exceeded $53,000; of 1867, 
$36,000 ; and of 1868, $28,000. A plot of ground situated 
on Fourth avenue and Seventy-seventh street was leased to 
them by the city authorities for fifty years, at a nominal rent, 
and the directors purchased six additional lots on Seventy -sixth 
street. The plan at that time was to erect two fine pavilions, 
extending along Seventy-seventh street, from Fourth to Lex- 
ington avenues, with an administration building between them. 
The corner-stone of the western pavilion was laid September 
3, 1866, and the edifice so far completed that the building 
committee transferred it to the board of directors October 
28, 1868. The expenditures of the enterprise at that time hav- 
ing far outrun its income, the edifice could not be used until 
the heavy indebtedness could be removed. In the beginning 
of 1869 the directors, still burdened with debt, and seeing no 
prospect of receiving large donations, despaired of ever carry- 
ing through the original plan, and accordingly sold the six lots 
formerly purchased on Seventy-sixth street. The $25,800 
thus received enabled them to cancel their most pressing 
obligations, still leaving a debt of $20,000, and the Hospital 
unfurnished. At this critical moment, Mr. II. E. Moring vol- 
unteered to undertake another collection, and with much per- 
severance succeeded in raising over $11,000, with which sum 
eighty complete beds and the other furniture were obtained. 
On the 13th of September, 1869, the Hospital was finally 
opened for the uses for which it had been erected, since which 
a large number of patients have been treated. The edifice is a 
beautiful, three-story brick, with Fren(;h roof. The stories are 
high, well ventilated, heated throughout with steam, and con- 
tain one hundred beds. The whole is divided into six wards 
and fi\e private rooms. The directors were last year very 
agreeably surprised by receiving the princely gift of $50,000 
in Uuited States bonds, from Baron Yan Diergardt, a noble 
German philantln-opist. This sum has enabled them to can- 
cel all their indebtedness, leaving $40,000 in the treasury. 
They now propose to repurchase the lots so recently sold, or 
obtain others, and proceed with the erection of the other 
buildings so greatly needed, as the inconveniencies of the 
present building originate in the fact that all parts of the ad- 
ministration are crowded into what is but a part of a well-con- 
sidered plan. The incompleteness of the Hospital appears 
from the fact that the present building contains no kitchen of 
sufticient size, no separate room for a pharmacy, no room for 



GERMAN HOSPITAL ANT) DISPENSARY. 381 

surgical instruments, no suitably arranged operating theatre, 
no rooms sufficiently separated from the main building for 
patients giving symptoms of contagious disease. All these 
prerequisites are provided for in the general phiii. Patients 
are admitted regardless of color, creed, or nationality. From 
the time of opening the Hospital until October 1, 1870, 739 
patients were admitted, of whom 82 died, 600 were dismissed, 
and 57 remained. Of those admitted, 800 were treated free, 
19 paid in part, and 420 paid in full. 

In 1866 the German Dispensary previously established 
was by an amended charter united in interest and manage- 
ment with the Hospital. This continues at its old location, 
No. 8 Third street. During 1870 it dispensed medical aid to 
15,000 patients, and to about the same number the year pre- 
vious. About one-third of these were of American l)irth, 
and nearly eight-ninths of the remainder were from Ger- 
many. The college of physicians connected with this dis- 
pensary have collected the best library of medical periodi- 
cals in the United States. 

The German Hospital and Dispensary are conducted by 
learned and skillful physicians, and with the completion of 
their new buildings are certain to take rank among our best 
institutions. 




MOUNT SINAI HOSPITAL. 



{Lexington avenue and Sixty-sixth street.) 

The many thousand Hebrews of New York took no distinc- 
tive part in the hospital accommodations of the metropolis 
until about twenty years ago. The act of Legislature by 
which the Jewish Hospital was incorporated bears date of 
January 5, 1852. About that time Sampson Simson, a 
wealthy Hebrew, donated a lot of ground in Twenty-eighth 
street, near Eighth avenue, and the society purcliased an ad- 
joining lot and erected the handsome brick Hospital, still in 
use, at a cost of nearly $35,000. The corner-stone of the 
structure was laid with appropriate exercises in the presence 
of a large concourse of citizens on the 25th of November, 
1853, and the Hospital opened for the reception of patients 
amid much rejoicing on the ITtli of May, 1855. One hun- 
dred and thirteen patients were admitted the first year. 

The Institution is under the conti-ol of twelve directors, 
three of whom are elected annually by the members of the 
society and serve four years. Members are admitted on the 
annual payment of five dollars, or one hundred paid at one 
time, which entitles tliem to a voice at all meetings of the 
society, and to a preference in the benefits of the Hospital. 
In 1S53 Mr. Touro, of New Orleans, increased the capital of 
the society by a donation of $20,000, and in 1863 two of the 



MOUNT SINAI HOSPITAL. 383- 

directoi-s proposed to contribute $10,000 each, on condition 
that tlie Board should raise a permanent fund of $50,000, 
which was soon accomplished. 

During the sixteen years of its operations, it has received 
6,925 patients; about 5,500 of them have been restored to 
health, and about 1,400 surgical operations have been per- 
formed. The design of the society, as set forth at its incor- 
poration, is to " afford surgical and medical aid, comfort, and 
protection in sickness to deserving and needy Israelites," but 
their charities have extended far beyond their own persua- 
sion. Many sick and disabled soldiers during tlie war were 
received and treated in their Institution. When in 1866 the 
city was threatened with cholera, a ward was prepared and 
promptly tendered to the Board of Health. Casualty patients 
have always been received and every possible alleviation 
afforded, often at considerable expense to the managers ; and 
whenever a poor unfortunate has lost a limb by amputation, 
the directors have invariably procured him an artificial one. 
True to the instincts of their illustrious ancestors, they regard 
every man in distress a brother, and opening the tent door 
bid him welcome to the enjoyment of their hospitality. In 
their printed report they say, " The ear of the Hebrew is 
never deaf to the cry of the needy, nor his heart unmoved at 
the suffering of a fellow man, whatever be his creed, oi-igin, 
or nationality." Several of the Jewish Rabbis give unwear- 
ied attention to the religious interests of their patients, and 
suffering Gentiles are allowed to receive visits from their own 
spiritual advisers. The Hospital contains a small synagogue. 
They also own a burial-place, and bury the dead without 
charge to the fi-iends of the deceased. 

The necessities of the public and the wants of the society 
some time since outgrew the capacity of their modest build- 
ing, which has never been able to accommodate over al)Out 
sixty-five patients. Their surroundings have also sadly 
changed. At the time of opening the liospital, the neighbor- 
hood was clean, airy, and quiet. But during the last few 
years the building has been surrounded by factories, brewer- 
ies, and workshops, whose steam-engines are pufiing day and 
night, to the great annoyance of the patients, who sigh for 
quiet and rest. The^ factories have brought also a class of 
families +hat add greatly to the noise and filth of the neigh- 
borhood. In October, 1867, a steam boiler exploded within a 
hundred feet of the Hospital, and was thrown several hundred 



3S4 NEW YORK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS. 

feet ill tlie air, crushing a dwelliug and some of the inmates 
in its descent. The concussion at the Hospital was terrible. 
The walls were shaken, windows shattered, and the panic 
among the poor patients indescribable. This occurrence set- 
tled the matter of removal, and the directors began to in- 
quire for a more eligible site. The Common Council granted 
them a lease of twelve lots situated on Lexington avenue, be- 
tween Sixty-fifth and Sixty-sixth streets, for ninety-nine years, 
at a nominal rent of one dollar per annum. 

The corner-stone of the new Hospital was laid in the after- 
noon of May 25, 1870. After music by Eben's band, the 
Rev. J. J. Lyons offered an earnest and thoughtful prayer. 
Mr. Benjamin Nathan (since wickedly murdered), president 
of the society, after depositing the metal box containing the 
history of the movement and other documents in the stone, 
with an appropriate address, presented to Mayor A, Oakey 
Hall a silver trowel, which had npon one side of it a Hebrew 
inscription signifying House of the Sick, and on the other an 
inscription of gift, with the names of the officers and direct- 
ors. The Mayor, after congratulating the societv and the city 
upon this new movement of charity, said : 

" Other cities boast of peculiar and familiar titles descrip- 
tive of their inhabitants. There is the ' City of Brotherly 
Love,' as Philadelphia is called, and there is Brooklyn, 'The 
City of Churches ; ' but the city of New York proudly and 
gloriously boasts of being the great ' City of Charities.' It is 
therefore doubly appropriate" that the Mayor of that city 
should be here, as it were, the high -priest of these ceremonies." 

He then descended from the platform, and having placed 
himself near the stone, continued as follows : 

" I now proceed to lay this corner-stone in the name of our 
common humanity ; in the name of the common mortal life 
to which we all cling ; in the name of those ills of the body 
and the mind to \vhich we are all subject ; in the name of 
universal mercy, which we prayerfully demand ; and in the 
name of that universal death which we all reverently expect. 
And Jehovah grant that, as long as time endures, angels of 
compassion, with healing on their wings, may hover round the 
site of this Mount Sinai Hospital." 

After the stone had been lowered to*fts place the Mayor 
struck it several times with the gavel, and concluded the cere- 
mony by adding : 

" Lie thou there, O corner-stone, and, according to the sen- 



MOUNT SINAI HOSPITAL. 3S5 

tence of tlie noble prayer wbicli has been offered here to-day, 
mayest thou ever rest beneath tlie site of an hospital that 
shall be the shelter of suffering hunianitv, without distinction 
of faith." 

An eloquent and appropriate address was then delivered 
by the Hon. Albert Cardozo, one of the justices of the Su- 
preme Court of the State of New York, from which we ex- 
tract the following paragraph : 

"And now, from its foundation, I dedicate the beautiful 
edifice about to be erected on this spot to the charitable pur- 
poses for which it is designed. I dedicate it in the name of the 
union of these States — may both alike be perpetual ! — whose 
theory of religious liberty and equality, faithfully maintained 
from the birth of the nation — may it never be violated ! — has 
attracted so many to these shores, who have shed lustre upon 
our race, and who have repaid their adopted country for its 
protection by devoting treasure and talent, and life itself, to 
her interests. 

"I dedicate it in the name of the State of New York — may 
the career of both be upward and onward in prosperity for- 
ever ! — under whose parental and protecting care and benign 
influence and policy the Institution has thriven and grown, 
from insignificant and dependent infancy, until it has at- 
tained its present extended usefulness and proportions. 

" I dedicate it in the name of the City of New York — cath- 
olic and profuse in its generosity towards all laudable objects 
— our pride, our home ; with which our dearest interests and 
hopes are identified, and for whose welfare our heartstrings 
vibrate with tenderest emotion and sensibility ; whose prog- 
ress in all that makes a city really great, while only keep- 
ing pace with our affection, has excited the admiration and 
amazement of the world, and provoked at times the envy 
of her less-favored sisters of both this and the old country ; 
whose munificence towards this and all deserving charities 
marks her pre-eminent, as in e\"erything else, for entire free- 
dom from bigotry, and for devotion to the cause of humanity 
and the sacred principle of religious liberty. And in the 
name of all these, speaking for those Mdio cannot speak for 
themselves — for the helpless, the hapless, and the forlorn — 
I invoke the aid of all to sustain this admirable charity and 
make the Institution a perfect and permanent success." 

The work thus happily begun is being rapidly pushed for- 
ward, and the present auhimn will probably witness the 



3S6 NEW YORK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS. 

completion of one of the finest hospitals in our city. The- 
building will front on Lexington avenue, extending aci-oss 
the entire block ; it will consist of a fine central edifice, with 

ap- 



two wino-s, constructed of brick and marble, in the most 



'a^f 



proved style of architecture. It is three stories high, besides 
basement and attic, with Mansard roof, heated with steam, 
will accommodate two hundred beds, and cost, in its construc- 
tion and furniture, $325,000. The subscription building fund 
amounts to nearly one hundred thousand dollars at this 
writing, the old hos|)ital and grounds are expected to bring 
toward a hundred thousand wlien vacated, and the Institution 
has now a permanent endowment fund of another hundred 
thousand. The Charity Fair inaugurated on the 30th of- No- 
vember, 1870, netted the Hospital the large sum of $101,6tl:5^ 
besides the $35,000 appropriated to the Hebrew Orphan 
Asylum. Surely the Hebrews of New York are making an 
excellent record. May a kind Providence direct and save 
them ! 



BELLEVUE HOSPITAL. 

( Twenty-sixth street, East rive'. 




(HE Belle vue Hospital is one of the largest Institu- 
tions of its kind in the United States, and one of the 
noblest monuments of municipal charity in the whole 
world. In 1816 a stone building fifty feet by one 
hundred and fifty was erected at Bellevue, as a peniten- 
tiary for minor offenders. The same year the new alms- 
house was erected in close proximity to the latter, and in 
1826 the Hospital was established near the two just described. 
The three Institutions, and over twenty acres of land, were en- 
closed with a stone wall, and became kno^vn as the Bellevue 
establishment. The opening of the House of Refuge in 1825, 
and the prison at Sing-Sing in 1828, furnished accommoda- 
tions for criminals, so that at the removal of the inmates of 
the almshouse to BlackwelFs Island, in 1848, the Hospital 
interest naturally took the entire possession of Bellevue. 
The old almshouse, constructed of blue-stone, is now the 



BELLEVUE HOSPITAL. 387 

central edifice of tlie Hospital. Yarions changes and addi- 
tions have been made from time to time, until the buildings 
now present a continuous line of three liundred and fifty 
feet, all four stories high, the central one crowned with a 
lofty observatory. The Hospital contains thirty-five wards, 
and has space for about twelve hundred patients. The ceil- 
ings are now considered too low and the ventilation quite 
defective, yet every im])rovement possible for the comfort of 
the patients is made. The Hospital is heated throughout with 
steam, the cooking and washing being performed by the same 
agent, and the apartments are all lighted with gas. Each 
building has a piazza with external iron staircases, affording 
pleasant exercise to convalescents, and ample means of escape 
in case of fire. 

In the basement of the main building are kept the drugs, 
the Hospital clothing, and much of the provision stores. 
Here is also the printing office of the commissioners. The 
side walls of the wide entrance way of the first floor present 
on tlie one liand the stone on which George Washington 
stood when he took the oath of office as first President of 
the United States. The stone is appropriately inscribed. On 
the opposite side the commissioners have placed a beautiful 
inscription in white marble, to the memory of Dr. Valentine 
Mott, so long regarded as the chief ornament of the medical 
fraternity of New York. The office of the warden and the 
business room of the commissioners are found on the first 
floor, and on the second are private apartments for the war- 
den, engineer, apothecary', and matron. The third floor con- 
tains similar apartments for the resident physicians and 
surgeons ; while the fourth contains the operating theater, 
surrounded with circular seats raised in the form of an am- 
phitheater, with space for several hundred students. This 
floor contains also the library, and the consultation room. 
The surgical instruments formerly kept here have been re- 
moved to the flrst floor, and placed with other curiosities in 
a large room adjoining the entrance hall. They are all 
placed in charge of one person, who is held responsible for 
their condition. The attic contains the tanks from which 
hot and cold water is distributed through the building. The 
Hospital has recently been furnished with spring beds, which, 
besides lessening the labor, adds greatly to the comfort of the 
patients. The museum is being steadily enriched with speci- 
mens of morbid anatomy, illustrating nearly every variety of 



388 NEW YOEK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS. 

disease. The Hospital is placed under a medical committee 
of inspection, who examine it weekly, making such recom- 
mendations as they think proper. 

This Hospital, as all know, is a municipal institution, con- 
trolled by the Commissioners of Charities and Correction. 
Hence all sick poor are entitled to treatment free of charge. 

A surgeon is detailed to examine all applicants, and if 
they require continuous medical treatment he assigns them 
to their appropriate ward in the Hospital ; if the illness is 
slight, they are sent to the Bureau of Out-door Sick. An 
average of seven or eight thousand are treated annually in 
this Hospital, about ten per cent, of whom die ; a large part 
of the deaths occur, however, among infants and casualty 
patients. Though the patients are nearly all paupers, the 
Burgeons employed are second to none, and the treatment 
throughout is the best science can afford. 

The bodies of the dead, unless taken away by their friends^ 
are interred in the City Cemetery on Hart Island. 

As a school of clinical instruction, Belle vue ranks among 
the first in the world. The students of all medical schools 
in the city are granted admission tickets, and several hundred 
are in constant attendance. 

In 1866 the commissioners added the Medical and Surgi- 
cal Bureau for the Belief of the Out-door Poor, which is 
manned by a large corps of physicians, who treated over 17,000 
patients the last year. During the same year a building, 
similar to the famous Morgue of Paris, was constructed, as a 
temporary receptacle for the exhibition and identification of 
the unknown dead. The body is stretched upon a table so 
that it can be viewed through a glass ceiling day and night 
for seventy-two hours. H not identified, a minute descrip- 
tion of the person is recorded, a picture taken, and the gar- 
ments worn are still kept on exhibition for twenty or more 
days. A convenient room has been added to this building 
for the deliberations of the coroners. During 1869 there 
were received at the Morgue 149 bodies, TO of whom were 
recognized by friends, and 79 not identified. 

Several acres of ground are still connected with the Hospi- 
tal. The yards are finely cultivated and add greatly to the 
beauty and healthf ulness of the Institution. 




THE NURSERY AND CHILD'S HOSPITAL. 



{Leodngton avenue and Fifty -first street.) 

Among all the woes of this sorrowful world, perhaps none 
are more touching to consider or record than those endured 
by helpless, speechless childhood. If early years are well 
supplied with the appliances of life and culture, the priva- 
tions, exposures, and tempests of later yeai-s may be tri- 
umphantly borne ; but neglect and misfortune in the morn- 
ing of life, if not instantly fatal, may so extend their shadows 
as to sadden and ruin a noble existence. Many causes 
conspire to afflict childhood. Death robs many a bright- 
eyed child, in the earliest dawn of its existence, of her whose 
love and care can never be supplied. Its father may be at 
that instant on the Indian Ocean, in Asia, or on the Rocky 
Mountains. Poverty may drive the mother to give the food 
nature provided for her own infant to that of another; thus, 
to save herself from starvation, she half starves her child. 
Some mothers are insane, and some suifer with lingering 
illness, and are themselves conveyed to hospitals. Add to 
these the numberless illegitimate births, where shame for 



390 NEW YORK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS, 

past crimes leads to the commission of another for its con- 
cealment, and we gain a faint conception of the ills the race 
encounters at the threshold of its existence. Eeflections of 
this kind, particularly those of wet-nurses, compelled by 
want of subsistence to neglect their own babes and care for 
others, led to the founding of the " Nursery and Child's Hos- 
pital." And is it not eminently fitting that woman, to whom 
God in His providence has connnitted the race, and to whom 
He has given the finest susceptibilities for its culture, should 
be the founder and manager of this worthy Institution? 
Early in 185-i Mrs. Cornelius Du Bois, whose mind had 
become thoroughly imbued with this subject, undertook to 
interest her friends and the public in behalf of the infant 
children of the poor, and so successful were her endeavors, 
that on the 1st of March, less than a month from the time of 
beginning, a society was organized, with $10,000 subscribed 
to commence the enterprise. On the first day of tlie follow- 
ing May a building was opened in St. Mark's place, which 
was so soon filled that it was found necessary to add the 
house adjoining; but, the pressure for room still continuiiig, a 
more eligible building was secured on Sixth avenue, wli'ere 
the society (;arried on its work for two years. 

The original intention was to provide a nursery for the 
infants of laboring women, and others deprived by any 
cause of their mothers. The design was to provide for 
healthy children^ but unfortunately disease is not slow to 
march through the tender ranks of childhood, and it soon 
became apparent that, in order to the successful maintenance 
of a nursery, a hospital with physicians, nurses, and all need- 
ful appliances must be added. Every week the number of 
applications increased, and the managers soon became con- 
vinced that the limits hitherto assigned to their undertaking 
were not commensurate with the wants of the city, and that 
their borders must be greatly enlarged. 

This could not be done without money. An application to 
the city authorities finally secured the permanent lease of a 
lot of land one hundred feet square on Fifty-first street, be- 
tween Lexington and Third avenues. The Legislature was 
appealed to in 1855, and again in 1857, and the sum of 
$10,000 was granted to aid in building. Several public 
entertainments and many private donations so swelled their 
building fund that they were permitted, in May, 1858, to 
complete a fine three-story brick building, at a cost of 



THE NURSERY AND CHILd's HOSPITAL. 391 

$28,000. The main building is sixty feet deep, with a front 
of one hundred and nineteen feet, with two wings of twenty- 
seven and forty feet, respectively. Up to this period no ille- 
gitimate children were admitted, but the large numbers they 
were compelled to refuse induced a deeper study into the 
necessities of these most wretched of all infants. The late 
Isaac To^vnsend, then one of the governors of the almshouse, 
was led to the careful consideration of the same subject, and 
came to the same conclusion, viz., that a foundling hospital 
should be established in xTew York. 

In 1858 the Common Council appointed a select committee 
to examine and report on the expediency of founding such 
an Institution. The committee carefully examined the sub- 
ject, conferred with eminent ph3'sicians, collected statistics, 
and reported in favor of such a Hospital. Their report showed 
that in one week, out of 503 deaths, no less than 107, or thirty- 
live per cent., were under one year of age, 54 being returned 
as still or premature births. But these published bills of 
mortality could not guess at the hundreds and thousands of 
cases known only to certain women and their physicians. 

The annual report of the Police Department, the observa- 
tions of thoughtful medical advisers, and others, proved that 
infanticide had become a widespread and appalling crime in 
American cities, and extended from the marble palace of Fifth 
avenue to the dingiest hovel on the island. It was believed 
that the establishment of foundling hospitals in the principal 
cities of Europe had prevented the extensive practice of 
cliild-murder in those countries. As early as 1670, Louis 
XIV. placed the Foundling Hospital of Paris on a common 
footing with the other hospitals of the city ; and in 1778 a 
lying-in asylum was established by Marie Antoinette. In 1739 
Thomas Coram founded the London Foundling Hospital, 
which has since been recognized as one of the most useful 
charities of England. In our country villages and towns, 
where every one is known, infanticide is believed to be rare; 
hence, many indiscreet girls and women, on pretence of a visit 
or an offered situation, have in the seclusion of a great city 
sought concealment, and there blackened their souls with in- 
fanticide. The statistics gathered in one instance showed that, 
out of 195 cases, only 37 belonged to the city. Many young 
girls are annually tln-ust from tlie homes of their parents on 
the discovery of tlieir sad condition, some of whom enter as a 
last resort dens of infamy to run a brief career of crime, which 



392 NEW YORK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS. 

terminates in an awful death ; while others, whose desire for 
concealment is stronger than for life, are drawn from the 
water by our policemen, and described by the coroner. 
Through the unceasing exertions of Mrs. Du Bois, aided by 
the Common Council, a foundling hospital or " Infant Home " 
was erected in 1861. 

It was a model building of its kind, constructed of brick 
and freestone, with three stories above a liigh l^asement, 
fronting on Lexington avenue, at the corner of Fifty-first 
street, and a little' removed from the original Nursery and 
Hospital. About the time of its completion, yielding to the 
pressing demands of the honr, it was surrendered to the sick 
and disabled soldiers, who occupied it four years, but at tlie 
return of peace it was restored to its founders, and appropri- 
ated to the uses for which it had been erected. In October, 
1865, it was formally opened for the reception of inmates. 

Great inconvenience was experienced still for want of suih- 
cient room, and from the separation of the two buildings. 
This led the enterprising managers, in 1868, to erect, at an 
expense of over thirty-one thousand dollars, a third building, 
covering the vacant space between the two former, the base- 
ment of which contains a play-room for the children, the rest 
being largely appropriated to a lying-in asylum. The build- 
ings "are now entirely completed and paid for. They contain 
fourteen wards, besides suitable school, dining, and play 
rooms, and other needful apartments. The aim of the society 
is not to encourage vice, but to prevent it Hence females 
seeking admission are required to furnish certificates from re- 
sponsible parties, stating that until recently they have sustained 
virtuous characters. It opens its doors for the relief and re- 
covery of unfortunates who have no other refuge in the wide 
world. Each woman admitted is required to nurse and care 
for one child besides her own, and if her child dies, to nurse 
two during her stay. On leaving she receives a certificate of 
recommendation from the managers and house physician, 
which usually secures her a good situation. Children under 
six years of age are received, for which the parent is ex- 
pected to pay ten dollars per month for an infant, seven dollars 
for a child who can walk, and nine dollars for a hospital or 
sick child. The great majority, however, pay nothing. The 
city authorities now pay five dollars per week for every indi- 
gent lying-in woman, and five dollai-s per month for each child 
when nothing can be detained from the parent. 



THE NURSERY AND CHILD's nOSPITAL. 393 

During the year closing with March, 1870, 108 mtants 
were born in the Hospital, and the inmates averaged about 
three hundred and fifty, two-thirds of whom were children. 
The expenditures of the Institution during the same time 
amounted to $55,241. During the last year 116 infants were 
born in the Institution, 1,083 persons cared for, and 43 wet 
nurses provided with situations. The servants sometimes find 
an infant placed at the door of the Institution in the early 
iiours of the morning, and others are left by heartless 
mothers who never call for them. These are kept and in- 
structed until they are eight or ten years of age, when they 
are adopted into good families. The infants are fed con- 
densed milk, preparations of barley, etc., and as they 
advance eggs and other solid articles of diet are added. An 
able board of physicians give much time to the care of the 
sick, and the Institution is watched over night and day by an 
experienced matron, Mrs. Polman, who possesses rare fitness 
for the critical position. An annual ball is held in behalf of 
the Institution. This questionable method of sustaining a 
worthy charity has nevertheless proved eminently successful, 
as the managers have realized $10,000 or $15,000 from each, 
thus drawing large sums from the voluptuous public, which 
lacks the principle to give until entertained with some frivo- 
lous amusement. On the 4th of July, 1870, the Society 
opened on Staten Island a country nursery, for the benefit 
of the sickly children of the Institution, at an expense of 
$50,000. The Legislature of 1870 gave $25,000, and in 1871 
added the other $25,000, thus fully equipping this country 
retreat for these infant sufferers. The society is now thor- 
oughly furnished for its undertaking, and will doubtless run 
a long and useful career. The Institution is Protestant, but 
uot denominational. 




NEW YORK EYE AND EAR INFIRMARY. 
{Comer of Second avenue and Thirteenth street.) 

The disorders of the eye and its appendages are more 
mimerons and diversified than those of any other member of 
the human body, and some of the operations for its relief re- 
quire the nicest combinations of delicacy and skill. What- 
ever knowledge the ancients may have possessed of this sub- 
ject, certain it is that the medical fi-aternity, during the mid- 
dle ages, walked in profound darkness. It was not until the 
latter part of the seventeenth century that the anatomy of 
the eye was well understood. The German surgeons have 
the honor of rescuing from deep obscurity the science of 
ophthalmic surgery.' In 1773 Barthe first founded the 
Yienna School, which has since become so celebrated. The 
impulse given to the subject in Germany was soon communi- 
cated to England, and in 1804 Mr. Sanders founded the 
London Eye Infirmary, whence have sprung similar charities 
in various parts of Great Britain and the Continent. 



NEW YORK EYE AND EAB INFIEMAIIY. 395 

In 1816 Edward Delafield aud John K. Kodgers, gradu- 
ates of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of New York 
City, sailed for Europe to improve themselves in the knowl- 
edge of their profession. They had attended the usual course 
of lectures, each had practised a year in the New York Hos- 
pital, but as the institutions of our country were yet in their 
infancy they hoped by foreign study to render themselves 
better iitted for the responsible duties of the medical profes- 
sion. While pursuing their studies in London they were in- 
duced to become pupils in the recently established Eye In- 
firmary. They had given the usual attention to the study of 
the treatment of the eye, but soon discovered that they and 
their American instructors were profoundly ignorant of the 
whole subject. They instantly saw that here was an open 
field of great usefulness wholly untrodden in their own coun- 
try, and they devoted themselves with untiring assiduity to 
this new branch of knowledge. Returning in 1818, they 
nobly resolved to establish an Infirmary. They were both 
young, possessed little means, had no reputation as physi- 
cians, yet in August, 1820, they hired two rooms on the 
second floor at "No. 45 Chatham street, and publicly^ an- 
nounced that on certain days and hours of each week indi- 
gent persons afilicted with diseases of the eyes would be gra- 
tuitously treated, and furnished with all necessary medical 
appliances. What was undertaken as an experiment soon 
proved a success, for in less than seven months four hundred 
and thirty-six patients had applied and received treatment, 
and many astonishing recoveries had occurred. Having thus 
demonstrated the feasibility and utility of the undertaking, 
they now resolved to bring the matter before the public, and 
ask for the means to really found an Infirmary. A public 
meeting convened at the City Hotel on the 9th of March, 
1821, to consider this subject, was eminently successful. A 
permanent organization was eifected, and a committee raised 
to solicit subscriptions and temporarily conduct the Institu- 
tion. 

The members of the society were denominated governors, 
and they resolved that the payment of forty dollars or up- 
wards should constitute one a governor for life, or the pay- 
ment of five dollars per annum a yearly governor, with the 
privilege of sending two patients to the Infirmary for treat- 
ment at all times. 

The operations of the society were continued in the same 



396 NEW YORK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS. 

rooms until 1824, when a part of the old Marine Hospital 
was rented for the sum of $500 per annum. The act of 
incorporation passed the Legislature March 29th, 1822, and 
the sum of $1,000 was granted in each of the two following 
years. In 1845 the accommodations at the Hospital being 
totally inadequate, a three-story house at No. 97 Mercer 
street was purchased and fitted up for the Infirmary. But 
after a few years the number of patients became so great 
that it became manifest that a larger building must be 
obtained. In 1854 the Legislature, in answer to repeated 
memorials, granted the sum of $10,000, on condition that 
$20,000 more should be raised by the directors and expended 
in building. Over $30,000 were soon subscribed by the 
friends of the enterprise, and in 1857 the present building 
was erected. It stands on the north-east corner of Second 
avenue and Thirteenth street, is a handsome four-story 
brown stone, with appropriate apartments and space for sev- 
enty-five beds for patients. It was a source of deep mortifi- 
cation to the prime movers in this undertaking, who had in- 
troduced this system into the country, and had planted them- 
selves in its largest and wealthiest city, to see two kindred 
institutions securely founded and richly endowed, one in 
Boston and the other in Philadelphia, while they were left 
to toil on in comparative poverty and obscurity for six and 
thirty years. On their entrance into the new building the 
society entered upon a new era. Its enlarged accommoda- 
tions for patients from abroad greatly swelled the numbers of 
those who sought its remedies. Previous to 1855, there had 
been treated 48,528 patients, but during the last sixteen years 
no less than 98,875 have sought relief at the Infirmary. An 
army, in all, of 147,403. The Infirmary is open daily, Sunday 
excepted, from twelve o'clock to one and a half, for the gra- 
tuitous treatment of eye patients ; and diseases of the ear are 
treated every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday, from two 
o'clock to four. The poor from all parts of the State are 
entitled to its privileges. The cost of the building, with the 
site on which it stands, has amounted to $65,000, and is now 
valued at nearly twice that amount. At its opening there 
remained a debt upon it of $10,000. This has since been 
removed, and commendable exertions have since been made 
by the directors and surgeons to secure an adequate 
endowment, to establish free beds, and to furnish the patients 
gratuitously with glasses, artificial eyes when needed, etc. 



NEW TOEK EYE AND EAR TTSTP TRM AT?. V, 397 

The State long since withdrew all pecuniary support, though 
patients are freely received from all parts of it, and the Com- 
mon Council, grants it but $1,000 per annum. Of the 9,290 
treated during 1870, 7,387 were for diseases of the eye, and 
1,903 for diseases of the ear. Of the 415 patients kept in 
the Infirmary, 203 were at the expense of the Institution. 

The endowment fund, contributed by Mr. Grosvenor, Mr, 
Burrall, Dr. Harsen, Chauncey and Henry Kose, Madame De 
Pou, Mr. Alstyne, and others, has been carefully invested and 
now yields an income of $11,000. 

Though several new institutions of this kind have recently 
been established in this city and Brooklyn, the surging tide 
of sufferers lias not been diverted from this old and well- 
known Bethesda. 

This society has certainly accomplished an excellent work, 
and is justly entitled to the lasting gratitude of the public. 
Its whole history has been an example of the most rigid 
economy and self-sacrifice, but the fruit of its benevolent 
exertion has been rich and abundant. Frequently has the un- 
willing occupant of the almshouse recovered through its exer- 
tions. His family, long scattered or consigned to a home of 
wretchedness, has been collected and raised by industry to 
comfort and independence. Here the infant, born blind, has 
fii'st opened its eyes upon its mother's face, and the few re- 
maining days of the old man have been cheered by the 
returning light of day. From these rooms the broken-down 
student has returned to his books, and the lone female to her 
empleyment, happy in the recovery of sight, the loss of which 
made poverty a double calamity. Here many an anxious 
mother has shed tears of joy over the recovery of a long- 
afflicted child. If it is praiseworthy to educate and support 
the blind, is it less so to prevent blindness ? Surely it is much 
cheaper to prevent pauperism than to support it, all other con- 
siderations ignored. The benefits accruing to the whole 
country, through the better education of the medical frater- 
nity, is not the least advantage to be considered from the 
founding of this Institution. The knowledge acquired has 
been freely offered to humanity at large. Clinical teaching 
and courses of lectures have been regularly given at the In- 
firmary for years, and every facility afforded to all medical 
students to perfect themselves in this branch of surgery ; thus 
affording the public a better protection against the mistakes 



398 NEW YOBK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS. 

and unskillfulness of their medical ad^dsers. Dr. Edward 
Delafield, its chief founder, whose name and toils have been 
conspicnons in nearly every part of its history, still survives, 
to mark with peculiar satisfaction the increasing success of 
this cherished Institution. 




THE WOMAN'S HOSPITAL OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK. 



{Fourth avenue and Fiftieth street.) 

The advances made in almost every branch of medicine and 
surgery during the present century have far exceeded tliose 
of any similar period in the history of the world, yet woman, 
borne down by peculiar and loathsome sufferings, has sighed 
in vain for relief until within the last few years. In 1852, 
Dr. J. Marion Sims, originally from Alal)ama, made known 
to the profession the result of his long and patient investiga- 
tions of some of those hitherto incurable ills that afflict 
woman. lie had discovered the surgical remedy whereby 
with one or more operations a disease of the most distressing 
character, that had for ages baffled the skill of Europe, was 
radically cured. The announcement was hailed with high 
satisfaction by the medical fraternity. The successful treat- 
ment of these cases, it was found, required the careful man- 
agement in minute detail of such trained nurses as are rarely 
found in private houses. Secondly, the operator, in addition 
to the knowledge and skill of a good surgeon, must possess 
peculiar adroitness of manipulation, the gift of very few, re- 
quiring large and constant experience not often attained in a 



400 NEW TOEK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS. 

general hospital. Third, the successful treatment of many 
patients could be conducted nowhere but in a hospital. 
From these considerations it was deemed expedient to estab- 
lish an institution where this treatment could be made a spe- 
cialty. The subject being laid before a number of wealthy 
benevolent ladies of New York, they entered upon the task of 
founding an Institution with a very commendable zeal. 

In February, 1855, the Woman's Hospital association was 
formed, with a board of managers consisting of thirty-four 
ladies, a work of woman for the benefit of her own sex". On 
the 4th of May, 1855, the association opened a hospital in a 
hired building, with forty beds, and conducted its operations 
for over twelve years on this limited scale. During that 
period, however, over twelve hundred patients were discharged, 
either cured or greatly relieved, besides the hundreds of out- 
door patients treated. The city generously contributed a 
block of ground lying on Fourth avenue and Fiftieth street, 
and in May, 1866, the corner-stone of the Woman's Hospital 
was laid. On the 10th of October, 1867, the new building was 
thrown open for inspection and for appropriate services, and 
on the 15th for the reception of patients. While the build- 
ing was being erected, the property occupied on Madison 
avenue was sold, and the patients removed to Thirteenth 
street, where they continued eleven months. The new Hos- 
pital is one of the prettiest buildings on the island. Its base- 
ment is of polished stone, the four additional stories of brick, 
with angles and pilasters ornamented with finely wrought ver- 
miculatcd blocks. The windows are beautifully arched, the 
ceilings higher than in any other hospital in the city, and an 
elevator ascends from basement to fourth floor, to the great 
convenience of patients, nurses, and visitors. The building 
contains 75 beds, and cost, with its furniture, $200,000. The 
upper floor is devoted to charity patients from New York 
State only, who are required to render some service in the 
labor of the house, if able. 

The price of board on the third floor is six dollars per 
week, on the second floor eight dollars, the first floor being 
divided into private rooms which rent for fifteen or twenty 
dollars per week. During the year closing November, 1869, 
236 patients received treatment in the Institution ; of these, 
151 were cured, 13 improved, 6 discharged as incurable or 
unsuitable for this treatment, 6 died, leaving 60 still in the 
Hospital. The expenses of the Institution during the year 



THE woman's hospital OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK. 401 

amounted to $22,000, of which sum $14,000 were received 
from the pay patients, and the remainder raised by subscrip- 
tions and donations. The surgical department, \inder the 
direction of the skillful Dr. Emmet, has been so oriranized 
that out-door patients are gratuitously treated three days in 
the week, and during the year 1,369 of this class had been 
admitted. The report of the year closing November, 1870, 
showed that 262 patients had been under treatment in the 
wards, of whom 167 were discharged cured, 17 improved, 12 
received no benefit, and 9 died, leaving in the Hospital 57. 
Over eighteen hundred out-door patients had also received 
medical treatment. The annual expenses had slightly de- 
creased, as had also the receipts from the patients and from 
donations. Ovarian tumors of astonishing magnitude have 
been successfully removed at this Hospital. 

The business of the association is conducted by a board of 
males styled governors, and an associate board of females 
termed supervisors. A hundred ladies have pledged to sup- 
ply the annual deficiency in the finances, the liability of each 
not to exceed one liundred dollars. They deem this course 
preferable to fairs, lotteries, etc. The State, city, and com- 
munity have honored themselves in contributing toward the 
establishment of this much-needed Institution. 

Thousands of physicians from all parts of our country have 
attended on cHnical days, and returned to their own fields to 
put in practice the knowledge acquired. 

The founder of the Institution has introduced the discovery 
into England and France, receiving distinguished honors 
from those nations, but, what is more desirable still, the satis- 
faction of knowing that his system for the amelioration of 
human suffering is being reduced to practice in all parts of 
Europe. ' i 

During 1869 a modest gentleman, Mr. Baldwin, whose 
name was withheld until after his death, contributed the 
princely sum of $84,000 toward the erection of another 
pavilion, similar to the one in use. The association was still 
somewhat in debt on the present building, but this munifi- 
cent donation has imposed the duty of raising an additional 
$50,000 to complete the project, which will probably be ac- 
complished at no distant day. In 1868 Mr. Henry Young 
contributed $3,000 for the endowment of a bed which he is 
allowed to assign to such patients as he shall choose at all 
times. During the last year Mrs. Kobert Eay and Mrs. H. 
26 



402 NEW YOBK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS. 

D. Wyinan have each contributed a shnilar sum. The 
managers desire to have these excellent examples followed 
until half of the beds in the Institution are free, and if a suf- 
ficient endowment could be secured it would be their pleasure 
to make the Woman's Hospital entirely free to every suffering 
female who may need its treatment. 

The fame of the Woman's Hospital has spread through all 
the land. In the spring of 1870 the wife of an army officer, 
suffering under a malady pronounced incurable, came from 
Airzona. With the courage of a brave and true woman, 
stimulated by the love of life that she might still minister to 
husband and children, she travelled incessantly fourteen days 
and nights, through the three thousand miles that separated 
her from the goal of her hopes. When presented to the 
surgeon-in-chief, he informed her with marked kindness that 
the chances were sadly against her. She calmly scanned his 
face for a moment, and then replied, " Before I saw your face, 
sir, I feared I should die ; but now I know I shall live." 
Faith and skiU wrought together, she recovered, and carried 
to her distant home grateful memories of the Woman's 
Hospital. 



i;,^ 



\^ 




m 



INSTITUTION FOR THE RELIEF OF THE RUPTURED AND 
CRIPPLED. 

{Corner of Lexington avenue and Forty-second street.) 

The generations of the last two centuries have been re- 
nownedabove all others for those discoveries and inventions 
which minister to the wants of snft'ering humanity. The 
physical sciences have always been slow in their development, 
yet with these the art of healing is most intimately connected. 
It is sometimes said that little progress has been made in 
literature during tlie last two thousand years. 

Modern authors do not surpass the ancient classics, modern 
orators have not equalled Demosthenes and Cicero, and the 
volumes of modern poets are laid aside for those of Homer 
and Virgil. Euclid, who flourished three centuries before 
Christ, has not been excelled by geometricians ; astronomers 
have improved little on La Place, and law has improved but 
slowly since the days of Blackstone and Mansfield. 

Medical science, however, has ad\anced with rapid strides in 
our day, diminishing suffering and greatly lengtliening the 
period of human life. Statistics show that longevity has in- 
creased in Paris, since 1805, seventy-one per cent., and that 



404 NEW YORK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS. 

while the annual deaths of London in 17S0 were one in 
twenty of the population, in our day they are reduced to one 
in forty. The great increase of hospitals, infirmaries, and 
dispensaries, during the last quarter of a century, has evinced 
decided progress in the right direction, exhibiting on the one 
hand a thoughtful generosity among the wealthy, and timely 
relief from the woes that afflict the indigent on the other. 
But while much was accomplished for the blind, the deaf- 
mute, for eye and ear patients, there still existed a very 
numerous class of ruptured and crippled for whose relief no 
institution had been founded. In 1804 a society was formed 
in London for the relief of the ruptured, which gave advice 
and trusses to poor persons properly recommended. Several 
others have since sprung up from this example, but it is 
believed that the citizens of New York have the honor of 
founding the first institution for the gratuitous and thorough 
treatment of hernia and all classes of orthopedic surgery. 
The prime mover in this laudable enterprise was Dr. James 
Knight. In 1842, when public clinics were first introduced 
in our medical colleges. Dr. Valentine Mott, Professor of 
Surgery in the University Medical College of New York, ap- 
pointed Dr. Knight, who had devoted much attention to the 
construction of surgical apparatus and the treatment of 
deformity, to take charge of the orthopedic branch of the 
Institution. Yast numbers of poor cripples and ruptured 
persons applied for treatment, and Dr. Knight supplied 
not a few of them with surgical apparatus at his own expense^ 
which drew heavily on his slender means, but which never- 
theless greatly enlarged his practice, and became in the end 
a source of wealth. At a later period Dr. Knight became 
one of the visitors of the New York Association for Improv- 
ing the Condition of the Poor, and on these visits he often 
found helpless cripples whom he believed might have been 
made useful and self-supporting if they had received proper 
treatment in early years. Dr. Knight had long felt the 
necessity of a society to undertake the improvement of this 
class of sufferers. lie at different times issued circulars to 
the benevolent of the city, setting forth the subject, urging the 
importance of an organization, but received no response.- He 
next prepared a paper which he presented to the principal sur- 
geons, the mayor, and to several other distinguished gentle- 
men, who gave it their signatures. With this encouragement 
he next sought the co-operation of Mr. R. M. Hartley, the cor- 



INSTITDTION FOE KELIEF OF KUPTUEED AND CRIPPLED. 405 

responding secretary of the Association for Improving the Con- 
dition of tlie Poor, This thoughtful philanthropist'had long 
felt the necessity of such an institution, but had been deterred 
fi-om any movement in that direction from want of profes- 
sional aid. He instantly recognized in Dr. Knight the aid 
he had so long needed, and on the 10th of April, 1862, he 
brought the subject before the managers of the Association 
for the Improvement of the Condition of the Poor, and intro- 
duced the Doctor to that body. After due consideration, the 
Society was, on the 27th of March, 1863, incorporated under 
the act of 1848. The private residence of Dr. Knight, 
Xo. 97 Second avenue, was rented at a moderate price, 
the managers pledged to defray the expenses of the enter- 

?rise for three years, and on the first day of May the 
nstitution was opened with Dr. Knight as resident physician 
and surgeon. During the first month 6Q patients were 
treated, 10 of whom- were taken into the Institution, and at 
the close of the year the number amounted to 828. With 
each succeeding 3"ear the number has increased, amounting in 
the year just closed to 2,507, or 11,764 during the first seven 
years; and even this number would have been quadrupled but 
for the lack of accommodations. It has been ascertained that 
at least one in fifteen of the population is ruptured ; persons of 
all ages, from the youngest infant to the octogenarian, bein^ 
thus afilicted.- These cases are largely among the poor and 
laboring classes, unable to purchase trusses and other surgical 
appliances. The children in the Institution present many sad 
examples of deformity. There are cases imder treatment fc. 
lateral curvatures, sjpindl and hip diseases, deformed limhs, 
aralytio affections, club-feet, weak anldes, weak knees, hoio 
'egs, and white swelling. Scores of astonishing recoverie; 
occur annually of those who a few years since would have 
been pronounced incurable, and left to limp or crawl to an 
early gi-ave. Another class of patients are those suffering 
from varicose veins, which are relieved by the laced stocking, 
which, like suitable trusses, spring supporters for hip disease's, 
and utero-abdominal supporters, have always heretofore been 
far beyond the reach of the poor on account of their costli- 
ness. The society manufactm-es its own instruments at less 
than one-fourth the price hitherto paid ^ All indigent persons 
applying receive counsel, and any of these instruments needed, 
gratuitously. The building in Second avenue was purchased 
in 1866, but was never able to accommodate over thirty, and 






406 NEW YOKE AND ITS INSTITUTIONS. 

as most of those admitted arc compelled to remain from six 
to eif^htcen months, and a few even longer, linndreds were 
anniialh' turned away, who, with careful in-door treatment, 
could have been saved from a life of deformity and suffering. 
The manifest necessity for the movement, and its auspicious 
beginnings, led the managers to appeal to the public for the 
means to found, on a iirm basis, a suitable institution. This 
has been responded to by a number of benevolent gentlemen, 
among whom may be mentioned Chauncey Rose, Esq., who has 
contributed the handsome sum of ninety tliousand dollars. 
The Legislature, in 1867, enlarged their charter, granting 
power to hold real estate to the amount of two hundred and 
fifty thousand dollars, and personal to the amount of one hun- 
dred and fifty thousand dollars. It also granted, through the 
Supervisors of New York county, twenty-five thousand dollars 
toward buildiag. The new edifice was entered by the sur- 
geon and patients in the spring of 1870, and formally opened 
with appropriate exercises on the eleventh of tlie following 
November. 

Wlien the edifice was finished, an indebtedness of $50,000 
remained on the property. John C. Green, Esq., the president 
of the society, nobly proposed to donate the sum of §50,000, 
if the board of managers would within thirty days collect a 
similar sum, which was soon accomplished, sweeping away 
all encumbrances with a stroke, and leaving $50,000 as the 
foundation of a permanent endowment fund. 

The building occupies five lots of ground on the north-west 
corner of Lexington avenue and Forty-second street. The 

t round plan consists of a central portion one hundred and 
fteen by forty-five feet, to which are attached semi-circular 
wings of twenty-two feet radius at three angles, two facing 
the south on Forty-second street, and one at the north-east 
angle on Lexington avenue. A wing, rectangular in form, 
thirty-two by twenty-two feet, is also attached to the north- 
west angle. The heavy walls, which are seventy-nine feet 
high, are of brick, trimmed with Ohio free and Connecticut 
brown stone, their blended coh^rs forming a grateful relief to 
the eye. The basement, which is ten feet high, contains a 
reception hall, with seats for one hundred out-patients, consulta- 
tion-rooms, kitchen, dining-room, store-rooms, laundry, and the 
manufacturing department for the construction and repairs 
of surgico-mechanical appliances. The first floor, reached 
by a broad flight of steps, is bisected by a spacious hallway,. 



ESfSTITDTIOIT FOK KELEEF OF KUPTURED AND CRIPPLED, 407 

while a narrower one, running at right angle with this, divides 
it into equal parallelograms. This floor contains a reception- 
room, a simcious hall for the meetings of the managers, ap- 
propriate rooms for the family, and several apartments for 
patients. The second and third floors, which have walls 
eighteen feet high, arc each divided into three longitudinal 
divisions, to be occupied by the children ; the central one on 
each floor is a clear space where they receive their food and 
instruction ; the others contain their beds, clothing, etc. The 
fourth floor is an open expanse for convalescent patients to 
enjoy the sunlight, free air, and amuse themselves M-ith suit- 
ably limited calisthenics. This story is eighteen feet high, 
covered with a large central and several smaller domes, 
through which the invigorating sunlight pours its mellow 
rays upon the pale but hopeful patients. The building con- 
tains an admirable system of ventilation, is heated throughont 
with steam, and well supplied with bath-rooms, hot and cold 
water. The spacious stairway is fire-proof, and the building 
is furnished with a fire-proof elevator, worked with steam, 
which carries patients' food and all other appliances from the 
basement to the fourth floor. The edifice has been completed 
at an expense of $250,000, including the site, and has ample 
accommodations for two hundred patients. The Institution is 
now prepared to receive pay patients, both children and adults, 
and the society has entered, we trust, upon a new era in its 
useful career. Its labors in the past, aside from all human 
and moral considerations, have been abundantly successful, 
relieving the city of hundreds who must have been beggars 
and paupers, and supplying the means of comfort and inde- 
pendence to many worthy families. The chikb-en are in- 
structed in English and German, and many who never saw a 
book at home Vnake surprising progress. The Institution in 
its management is Protestant, though not denominational, and 
sound Christian morals are inculcated in the minds of its in- 
mates, who represent all creeds and nationalities. Without 
disparagement to any, we can but regard this as among the 
very first institutions of this great metropolis. 



THE HOUSE OF REST FOR CONSUMPTIVES. 

(Tremord, iV. T.) 

. ...jHE idea of founding an institution for the better 
'^^e^ treatment of consumptives, we are told, originated in 
\^fPi the mind of Miss E. A. Bogle, of White Plains. Her 
mother having died with consumption, she was led to 
reflect much upon the nature of the disease, and having spent 
fifteen months in a camp hospital at David's Island during 
the war, and taken charge of the Home for Incurables at West 
Farms after her return, she conceived the idea of establishing 
an institution where pulmonary complaints should be made a 
subject of special study and treatment. She communicated 
the idea to the Rev. T. S. Rnmney, D.D., of White Plains, 
who entered with spirit into the movement and became the 
founder of the Institution. The society was organized in 
September, 18G9, and on December 1st a House of Rest for 
Consumptives M^as opened at Tremont, with one female 
patient. The author visited the Institution on the last day of 
January, 1870, and found five patients, three male and two 
female. The building leased at Tremont is a very eligible 
one, with fine surroundings, on the line of the Harlem Rail- 
road, though it is the purpose of the trustees to purchase land 
and erect suitable buildings at White Plains at no distant 
day. It is designed to be a charitable institution, receiving 
patients afilicted with pulmonary complaints from an}^ and 
every denomination, supplying all with medical treatment and 
nursing ; also " with the ministrations of the Gospel according 
to the forms and doctrines of the Protestant Episcopal 
Church." Any person or society may establish a free bed, to 
be constantly occupied by any invalid he shall designate, on 
the annual payment of three hundred dolhirs. 

It is the desire of the managers to have as many of the 
beds free as possible. Persons become members of the 
society on the annual payment of ten dollars, or a life mem- 
ber on the payment of one hundred at one time. 

It may be doubted whether the best location has been 
selected, a dry atmosphere being thus far considered the most 
important desideratum for consumptives. 

AYhile it is too early in the history of the Institution to 



THE HOUSE OF REST FOR CONSUMPXrVES. 409 

make any safe prediction concerning it, may we not, how- 
ever, rejoice in the undertaking, and hope that new light 
may be shed on this hitherto dark subject, and that thou- 
sands who would otherwise sink pale and lifeless into prema- 
ture graves may be spared for years of toil and usefulness. 

Other diseases that successfully baffled the skill of the 
medical fraternity for ages have been conquered by the in- 
vestigations of modern times. The sraall-pox was the raging 
scourge of the world until Dr. Jenner, by long study and 
careful experiments, disrobed it of its power. Certainly, in 
a climate like ours, wliere three-fourths of the people are 
afflicted with pulmonary diseases in some of their forms, and 
all are liable to be, no more important subject can challenge 
the researches of the physician, or the charities of the benevo- 
lent. 




NEW YORK INFIRMARY FOR WOMEN AND CHILDREN. 



{No. 12S Second nvemie.) 

Until very recently it has been difficult, if not quite im- 
possible, for a woman to obtain a complete medical and sur- 
gical education, either in this or in any other country. 
That she possesses the talent, and should hy instruction 
secure the fitness to successfully treat the delicate cases of 
her own sex, is to ns a matter of plainest common sens6 ; yet 
such has been the prejudice of the medical fraternity and of 
the Avorld at large, that for ages she has been debarred from 
the halls of the medical college, and from the operating 
theater at the hospital. A growing desire to enter this wide 
field of usefulness has been evinced by the female sex for 
the last fifty years, and is becoming more and more conta- 
gious as opportunities in this direction are afforded. Some- 
thing more than twenty years ago. Misses Elizabeth and 
Emily Blackwell managed to press their way through a 
medical course, and graduated at a medical college in Cleve- 
land. Several years were subsequently spent in the prosecu- 
tion of these studies in Europe, after which they returned. 



NEW YORK INTIRMAEY FOR WOMEN AND CHILDREN. 411 

and with the aid of a few friends founded the first medical 
charity conducted by female physicians, and the first hospital 
in the world for the instruction of women in medicine and 
surgery. The Institution was incorporated in December. 
1853, under the general act of 1848, with a board of eigh- 
teen trustees, among whom stand the names of H. Greeley, 
H. J. Eaymond, Charles A. Dana, Elizabeth Blackwell, etc. 
Their first movement was to open an infirmary or dispensary in 
a single room near Tompkins square, with a capital of fifty 
dollars, to be attended three times a week by Doctor Eliza- 
beth Blackwell. Three years later, reinforced by the return 
of Doctor Emily Blackwell from Europe, and by Marie E. 
La Krzewska, a lady of medical attainments, a hospital de- 
partment was added. This last step was taken amid many 
fears and doubts on the part of sundry trustees and friends 
of the cause, lest, through the prejudice of the public, the 
death certificates signed by a woman should not be recog- 
nized by the authorities, and the means necessary to defray 
the expenses of the enterprise should fail. But the faith of 
woman discovered light ahead and pressed on. The names 
of several distinguished practitioners were secured as a con- 
sulting board, and in the fourth year the infirmary was by 
the State and city placed on the list receiving governmental 
assistance, which official recognition was considered more 
valuable than the financial aid' secured. In 1862 a subscrip- 
tion was started, which resulted in the purchase of the four- 
storv brick building, twenty-six by seventy feet, situated at 
Ko.''l28 Second avenue. The building cost $17,000, but the 
improvements and other changes have since doubled its mar- 
ket value The society in addition to about $1,000 annually 
received from the State, has recently received $10,000 from 
the city, which has enabled it to remove the mortgage on its 
property and to lease for a term of years the adjoining build- 
ing, thus greatly enlarging its accommodations. During the 
first five years that the infirmary was located on Second 
avenue, 31,657 sick persons were treated, the greater portion 
being out-door patients. On account of their limited accom- 
modations, but 640 were received into the house, 353 for the 
practice of midwifery, only five of whom died, an average of 
one per year. The'^small percentage of deaths establishes 
the capacity of woman to successfully conduct a hospital. 
Their business is rapidly increasing, as no less than 6,413 
were treated or supplied with medicine during 1869. More 



-4:12 NEW YORK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS. 

than one hundred have been received into the honse annually 
for several years past, the majority being obstetrical cases, 
though all other patients in the general practice are treated. 
The poor are furnished gratuitously with medicines, and vis- 
ited at their homes by the physicians. 

The instruction of young women for nurses, and for the 
practice of medicine, had been from the lii-st a leading 
feature in the Institution, yet the managers desired to make 
satisfactory arrangement witli some medical school for the 
graduation of their students, and thus avoid the necessity of 
establishing a separate college. Failing to complete such 
arrangements, an application to the Legislature for a college 
charter was made in 1865, and in due time granted. The 
course of study is rigid, lasting three years, and requiring 
the students to be present in the Institution at least eighteen 
months during that time. The faculty of professors and 
lecturers, like the board of trustees, is composed of males 
and females. Fifteen or twent}^ students taking the regular 
course have been in attendance since the organization of the 
college, besides other ladies who have simply attended lec- 
tures. An educational fund amounting to $100,000 has been 
called for, to wliicli appeal the late Chauncey "W. Rose, 
whose name is connected with so many benevolent undertak- 
ings, responded witli a donation of $5^,000. The fund at this 
time amounts to above $30,000. The annual expense of the 
Institution had not exceeded $7,000 up to the period of open- 
ing the second building, and five hundred dollars have never 
been received in any year from pay patients. The society 
performs a work of great charity among the poor, adminis- 
tering in times of greatest need to hundreds of widows, and 
to others who by desertion or deception are rendered equally 
forlorn, and richly deserves the unstinted support of the 
benevolent. All honor to this pioneer college of female 
physicians. 




NEW YORK MEDICAL COLLEGE AND HOSPITAL FOR \VOI\IEN. 



(Corner of Twelfth street and Second avenue.) 

The great and multiplied difficulties which every lady has 
been compelled to encounter in the study of medicine and 
surgery has by no means dampened the ardor of the sex for 
such an undertaking. In all parts of Europe, as well as in 
America, women are loudly knocking at the door of the 
college and the hospital. The University of Zurich, in 
Switzerland, conferred the degree on its first female medical 
student in 1867, and the number of Russian women applying 
for admission into the college of medicine at St. Petersburgh 
has been so numerous, that the suljject was several years 
since brought up for discussion in the Imperial Council of 
Education. These applications have been numerous in 
England, and in some recent instances, in France, ladies have 
received opportunities in hospitals and colleges not hitherto 
granted. Ten native female physicians have recently gradu- 
ated in India. But no country affords such opportimi'ties to 
women as America, and no city to female medical students 
as Xew York. The prevalence of liberal sentiments has of 
late thrown open to them the great city hospitals and dispen- 



■il4 NEW YORK A!ND ITS INSTITUTIONS. 

saries, with their admirable clinics; and colleges, encouraged 
by the first medical talent of tlie age, have been erected with 
every appliance for their especial culture. The infirmary 
established by the Blackwell sisters, and so successfully con- 
ducted, proved the practical capacity of woman as a medical 
adviser, and was an indispensable prerequisite to a successful 
appeal to the public for means to establish an institution for 
such education. This having been clearly demonstrated at 
that infirmary', the projectors of this Institution established 
first the college, leaving the practical matters of hospital and 
dispensary to be added at a later period. The origin of this 
Institution should perhaps date fi'om April, 1863, when a 
series of lectures were delivered to a class of females by Mrs. 
Losier of this city, in her own private parlor. This lady had 
graduated some sixteen years previously at a well-known 
medical college, and in these lectures was assisted by Doctor 
I. M. Ward. In the autumn of the same year, rooms were 
rented at No. 724 Broadway. Two or three years were 
subsequently spent at No. 74 East Twelfth street, and in 
June, 1SG8, the present eligible building, corner of Twelfth 
street and Second avenue, was purchased. The society was 
incorporated as a medical college in 1863, and the following 
3^ear the act was amended adding the term " Hospital." The 
trustees are all females. The main building is a fine four- 
story brown stone, twenty-six by eighty-one feet, and cost 
$43,000. A rear addition, fronting on Twelfth street, twenty- 
four by fifty-five feet and three stories high, has been added, 
containing dispensary, anatomical, lecture, and dissecting 
rooms. The hospital department was not opened until 
September, 1869, since which about fom- hundred female and 
children patients have been received. The dispensary has 
also treated several thousand indigent applicants. The 
Homeopathic system is principally taught, with a liberal 
leaning to all other good practice. The course of study lasts 
three years, and aims at great thoroughness, the students 
being requii-ed to practise in the dispensary and diagnose in 
the Hospital. Great pains are taken to perfect their attain- 
ments in obstetrics, a field in which they are expected to find 
their largest practice. In order to matriculation, the appli- 
cant must present an approved certificate of good moral 
character, be eighteen years of age, have a good English 
education, including elementary botany and chemistry, and 
be under the instruction of a respectable medical practitioner. 



HAHNEMANN HOSPITAL. 415 

A free scholarsliip is offered to one graduate from each 
chartered female college in this State. The expense of 
tuition does not exceed $130. Students are not boarded 
in the Institution. About thirty students are now in attend- 
ance, and nearly sixty have been graduated. After gradua- 
tion, one or two years are usually given to the further pursuit 
of their studies, before they really begin practice. Two of 
the graduates of this Institution are now conducting a lucra- 
tive practice in this city, and may be seen daily riding in 
their carriages to the dwellings of their patients. Others 
are practisiiig in other places, and proving that the practice 
of medicine is at present the most remunerative calling open 
to a woman. The Institution received $10,000 from the 
State in 1860, about $7,000 having been previously received 
from the city. It has also received many private donations, 
among which we may mention one from Mrs. Losier, M.D., 
one of its founders, of $10,000. 




HAHNEMANN HOSPITAL OF THE CITY AND STATE OF 
NEW YORK. 

{Fourth avenue and Sixty -seventh street.) 

ffllS is the only homeopathic hospital in the city and 
State of ISTew York, and the first in its inception in the 
United States. It was founded by and through the in- 
fluence of its medical director, Dr. F. Seeger, who ad- 
vanced from his own funds the first thousand dollars toward 
launching the enterprise. Its organization and incorporation 
took place early in the fall of 1809. Tlie inaugural exercises 
were held in the rooms of the Union League Club, on the 
15th of December, 1869, and Dr. John F. Gray presided. 
Addresses were made by William CuUeu Bryant and George 
C. I3arrett, the latter at that time president of the Hospital. 
Some choice pieces of music were sung by Miss Clara Louise 
Kellogg. A temporary hospital was opened in a hired build- 
ing, Ko. 307 East Fifty-fifth street, where it still continues. 
During 1870 forty patients, all but one charity cases, were 
treated. There are now many more applicants than can be 



416 NEW YOKE AND ITS INSTITUTIONS. 

admitted with their limited space. Measures were early 
taken toward the erection of large and permanent hospital 
buildings. The Legislature of 1S70 granted the corporation 
twelve city lots lyin^ on Fourth avenue, between Sixty- 
seventh and Sixty-eiglith streets; also the sum of $20,000 
toward the erection of buildings, on condition that an equal 
amount be raised by private subscription. About $15,000 at 
this writing have been secured, and an effort is being made 
to secure $50,000 more from the Legislature. The new 
structures will consist of a fine administi-ation building, front- 
ing on Fourth avenue, and of two tine pavilions extending 
one hundred and twenty-five feet along Sixty-seventh and 
Sixty-eighth streets. The entire front on Fourth avenue will 
be two hundred feet ten inches. The pavilions, besides high 
basement, will have two stories each, and a Mansard story, 
will accommodate one hundred and seventy-five patients, giving 
over 1,300 cubic feet of space to each. The buildings are 
expected to cost, when completed, about $200,000. All the 
newest developments in the science of hospital constructure 
have been embodied in the plan, and it is believed the Insti- 
tution will be a worthy representative of its kind. 

In the autunm of 1868 Dr. Seeger was chiefly instrumental 
in founding and securing the incorporation of the North- 
eastern Homeopathic Medical and Surgical Dispensary, which 
still continues at No. 307 East Fifty-fifth street. He has 
been from the first its chief physician. Since its opening 
over forty thousand patients have been treated, over eighty- 
five thousand prescriptions made, and more than two thou- 
sand visits made gratuitously to the sick at their liomes. 
State and city aid has been received in defraying the ex- 
penditures, and liberal contributions have been made by 
prominent gentlemen of the city. The dispensary is a sepa- 
rate Institution from the Hospital, though several of the offi- 
cers serve in both boards. 




THE STRANGERS' HOSPITAL. 

{Corner Avenue D and Tenth street.) 



'llE number of great and good men who industriously 
gather fortunes that they may thereby advance civil- 
ization, remove or assuage human suffering, is be- 
lieved to be happily upon the increase. The policy 
of appropriating wealth during the lifetime of the giver, 
under the economy and direction of his own guiding mind, is 
also a valuable improvement on the old legacy sj'stem. Mr. 
Peter Cooper, Mr, James Lenox, and Mr. Daniel Drew have 
furnished the wealthy of New York with some excellent ex- 
amples of this kind. It is also our pleasure to record another 
in the founding of the Strangers' Hospital. Mr. John H. 
Keyser, a New York merchant, and the architect of his own 
fortune, has been able during the last year " to realize a long- 
cherished desire," in the founding of an institution for tiie 
relief of the suffering. Early last summer (1870) he pur- 
chased the old Dry Dock Bank, at the corner of Avenue D 
and Tenth street, and began remodelling the structure. The 
building stands on a plot of ground fifty by one hundred and 
sixty feet, having in the rear an irregular L-shaped piece of 
land. The structure is of brick, four stories high ; the three 
upper of which are divided into wards, and contain space for 
over one hundred and eighty beds. The first floor contains 
the offices, a tine reading-room, and a large chapel. The 
building is well ventilated ; the walls are coated with a prep- 
aration of india rubber, to avert the absorption of any in- 
fectious material. The structure is heated with steam ; 
Russian, Turkish, and mercurial baths are provided, and 
every other appliance needful in a well-ordered Hospital. 

The first patient was admitted January 12th, 1871, but the 
formal dedication did not occur until the evening of the 7th 
of February. After prayer by Rev. J. S. Holme, of Trinity 
Baptist Church, the opening address was made by Dr. Otis, 
president of the medical staff of the Hospital, who, after a 
few preliminary remarks, indicated the object and scope of 
the Institution as follows : "It is not intended," said he, " for 
the benefit of the wealthy, who in times of sickness can com- 



4:18 NEW YOEK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS. 

mand the comforts of a well-ordered home and the attendance 
of a skillful physician or surgeon. Nor yet for the beggar, 
who leads a life of dissolute idleness, rotating in winter and 
in sickness about the charitable institutions of this city. It 
is inteuded for the succor and restoration of the deserving 
sick poor, and in an especial manner for that sadly numerous 
class of people in this great city who have seen better days 
People to whose sufferings in poverty and sickness, education 
and refinement put on a keener edge ; strangers — strangers 
to tlie homes of plenty and comfort in which they have been 
born and nurtured, and from which misfortune and disease 
have parted them. Nor is it alone to the strangers within 
our midst that the privileges of this great charity are ex- 
tended. Whoso is in need of the especial aid this Institution 
is intended to afford — even though afar off — according to the 
broad rendering of its patron — is entitled to be counted^ 
stranger, and to be taken in. Such as suffer with grave dis- 
ease, requiring skill and an extended experience not readily 
attainable in the rural districts, will be permitted to receive, 
equally with ' the strangers within our gates,' all the bene- 
fits of the Strangers' Hospital. And yet another class 1 To 
those, either rich or poor, suddenly stricken down by acci- 
dent or disease, the doors of this place are open at every 
hour, by night as well as by day, and every comfort and assist- 
ance will be afforded them." 

The Institution and its furniture, at the time of opening, 
had cost over one hundred and sixty thousand dollars, all of 
which was paid by the generous founder, who also proposes, 
by the divine blessing, to entirely support it in its operations. 
The Institution is to 'be conducted under Protestant auspices, 
but it is not denominational. Mr. Keyser attends the Baptist 
church, but is not a communicant. 



THE NEW YORK OPHTHALMIC HOSPITAL. 

( Corner Twenty-third street and Third avenue. ) 

^WWpHE New York Ophthalmic Hospital was incorporated 
4^1L April 21st, 1852, and was opened for the treatment 
^J^^ of patients May 25th of the same year. It was 

^ ^ founded chiefly by Mark Stephenson, and was first 
opened at No. 6 Stuyvesant square. The Institution was 
conducted by a corps of physicians of the Allopathic prac- 
tice until the year 1867, when at the instigation of certain 
interested parties a revolution in its management was pro- 
duced. At the annual election of the board of directors of 
that year, seventeen of the nineteen elected were inclined to 
the practice of Homeopathy, and they immediately appointed 
a board of surgeons of that school to take charge of the Hos- 
pital. During the four and a half years since the introduc- 
tion of Homeopathic practice, over live thousand patients 
have been treated, and the number now amounts to about 
fifteen hundred per annum. 

The Institution has been for many years at the corner of 
Fourth avenue and Twenty-eighth street, in a leased building 
but after much exertion the managers have succeeded in 
raising funds, and are now erecting a fine structure of their 
own, situated corner Twenty-third street and Third avenue, 
at a cost of nearly $100,000. With the entrance of the 
society into this improved edifice, affording ample accommo- 
dations for in-door patients, will doubtless come a greatly 
enlarged business, allowing the public to choose between the 
t\\'o methods of medical treatment. 



NEW YORK OPHTHALinC AND ATJRAL INSTITUTE. 

{M. 46 Bast Twelfth street.) 

HE New York Ophthalmic and Aural Institute was 
incorporated, under the general act of 1848, on the 
28th day of August, 1869. It was founded and put 
in working' order by the personal efforts and private 
means of Dr. H. Knapp, of this city, formerly professor in 
the University of Heidelberg. The premises at No. 46 




420 NEW YOKE AND ITS INSTITUTIONS. 

East Twelfth street, where the work of the Institution is con- 
ducted, is his private property. 

Tlie objects of the Institute are: 1. "The treatment of 
patients suffering from diseases of the eye and ear, belonging 
to all classes of society. 2. The advancement of medical 
science, in particular the branches of Ophthalmology and 
Otology. This is effected by the experience derived from the 
examination and treatment of patients, by scientific investiga- 
tion, and systematic medical instruction." 

The Institution, working as a Hospital, was opened for out- 
door patients on the 18th of May, 1869, and for the reception 
of in-door patients in the following June. At the issue of 
their last report it appeared that 5,559 had been treated in 
the Dispensary, and 468 in the Hospital. 

Three classes of in-door patients are received. The first 
class pay from three to five dollars per day for board, and the 
usual prices for professional services. The second class pay 
from one to two dollars per day, with no additional charges. 
The third class are indigent patients, and are admitted gratu- 
itously. The expense of the Institution the last year 
amounted to $15,102.09 ; of which sum the pay patients con- 
tributed $7,812.69, the State $1,288.82, the city of New 
York $1,000, and the remaining $5,000 were generously sup- 
plied by Dr. Knapp. 

The society has received for the present year a grant of 
$2,000 from the State, and a similar sum from the city au- 
thorities. 

The Dispensary is located in the basement of the house, 
which has a large hall, used as a waiting-room, and capable 
of seating about sixty people ; a reception-room, in which the 
patients are treated ; two dark rooms for examinations with 
eye and ear mirrors, and other instruments ; and a separate 
waiting-room for severer cases, especially such as have to un- 
dergo operations. Two wash-hand stands, one in the recep- 
tion-room and another in the hall, with warm and cold water, 
offer great convenience and relief to the surgeons and pa- 
tients. The dispensary is a charity, open to the poor daily 
from one to three o'clock p.m. 

The in-door department, entirely separated from the Dis- 
pensary, occupies the four stories of the house. The latter is 
twenty-five feet in front, but widens posteriorly to fifty-two 
feet, having in the rear a yard sixty feet broad and twenty- 
five feet deep. A spacious hall, with a large winding stair- 



MANHATTAN EYE AND EAR HOSPITAL. 421 

case in the centre, forms a most excellent natural veutilatoT-, 
while, in addition, a proper ventilation and light flue runs 
from the kitchen h5,ll to the roof. The in-door department 
resembles a pi'ivate hotel more than a hospital, having a con- 
siderable number of snialler and larger bed-rooms, a parlor, 
dining-room, piazza, bath-rooms, etc., with accommodation 
for thirty patients. The furniture is neat but plain in the 
top floor, handsome and elegant in the lower stories, thus 
affording to the inmates all the comforts which are compatible 
with the objects of the Institution. The beds are of the first 
quality throughout. A mati-on has charge of the establisli- 
ment. Experienced and trusty nurses are in constant atten- 
dance on the patients. The position of resident physician is 
filled by a competent ophthalmic and aural surgeon. 




MANHATTAlSr EYE AND EAE HOSPITAL. 

(iV(?. 233 East Thirty -fourth street.) 

ilE Manhattan Eye and Ear Hospital was chartered 



'4j^^ by the Legislature of tlie State of New York, May 5, 
wi^B ^^^^- ^^^® society began its work in a temporary 

^ ^ building. No. 233 East Thirty-fourth street, on the 
15th of October, 1869, by opening a daily clinic for the gra- 
tuitous treatment of the poor, and providing thirteen beds in 
suitable wards for such cases as might require surgical oper- 
ations or other careful in-door treatment. The society, thus 
far, has neither asked nor received State or municipal aid, its 
funds being generously provided by the benevolent men who 
planned the enterprise, and their friends. The board of di- 
rectors, its officers, and the surgical staff serve gratuitously. 

The directoi-s have purchased a plot of ground on the 
south-east corner of Park avenue and Forty-first street, hav- 
ing a frontage of one hundred feet on the avenue and eighty 
feet on the side street, at a cost of $50,000, and $15,000 have 
been paid on the same. Upon this they purpose to erect 
suitable hospital buildings as soon as the funds can be se- 
cured. 

On the first day of January, 1871, the society issued its 



422 NEW TOBK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS. 

first printed report, detailing the account of its proceedings^ 
and showing that, during the fourteen and one-half months 
of its active existence, 1,227 patients with diseases of the eye 
had been treated, and 430 with diseases of the ear. The 
Hospital is always open for the reception of in-door patients, 
and on every secular day at two o'clock p.m., for such as may 
attend gratuitously the Dispensary for the out-door service. 

Many cases have occurred in the experience of the year to 
illustrate the beneficent character of the work done by the 
Hospital. We append a few : 

" An old man, who was once in affluent circumstances, but 
had lost his property, so that he was an object of charity, was 
brought to the Hospital blind. One eye was found to be 
hopelessly disorganized by disease, and the other fast becom- 
ing so. An operation was at once performed on the eye least 
diseased, and in which he could just distinguish light from 
darkness ; it did not avail much, however, and then, on con- 
sultation, it was decided to remove the most diseased eye, 
trusting that this radical procedure might be of benefit to the 
eye which was rapidly becoming as hopelessly affected. This 
was done ; in a few days the sight of tlie remaining eye be- 
gan slowly to improve, and continued to do so until in about 
three months he was again able to read and write, and he is 
now earning his bread. This poor man was so destitute of 
means that he was not able to pay his board for one day of 
the three montlis he was in the Hospital, and but for its cha- 
rity his eyes would have very soon been beyond all hope. 

" A day laborer, with a family dependent upon him, had 
been blind for a year. He was led to the Hospital by a 
friend ; he was found to have a cataract, which was removed 
by an operation, and in six weeks he was able to leave the 
Hospital with sight enough for all ordinary purposes, and has 
now been at work for a year. He was also unable to pay his 
board. 

"A poor man, a widower, and his four small children, came 
into the Hospital with Ophthalmia, contracted in their over- 
crowded tenement from a child that had returned diseased 
from the Westchester Reformatory. They formed a piteous 
group, and were in immediate danger ot blindness. They 
were ragged and imclean ; special arrangements were made 
to cleanse, clothe, and treat them, and after prolonged and 
painstaking care they were all saved from blindness. 

" An old lady, in reduced circumstances, was brought in 



ASSOCIATION FOB RELIEF OF AGED INDIGENT FEMALES. 423 

blind with cataract; she was operated upon, and her sight re- 
stored, SO that she could read and write the finest print or 
writing. 

" A man who had for many years occupied a fiduciaiy posi- 
tion became blind and was brought to the Hospital, where 
he was operated upon for cataract, and his vision restored. 

" A poor seamstress, blind with cataract, was operated upon 
and her sight restored. 

" A poor old man, who had for some years been shut up at 
his house by his relations as hopelessly blind, was brought to 
the Hospital, operated upon for cataract, and useful vision re- 
stored. So we might go on to narrate several scores of cases 
in which blindness was either cured or prevented. 

" What is said of the cases of disease of the eye holds true 
also with regard to cases of diseases of the ear." 




ASSOCIATION FOR THE RELIEF OF RESPECTABLE AGED INDI- 
GENT FEMALES. 

(.East Twentieth street.) 



'HE society which still perpetuates this noble charity 
began its career during the last war with England, and 
has now issued its fifty-eighth annual report. In 
other lands, where institutions have attained the hoary 
growth of centuries, this statement would occasion no remark ; 
but here, amid the rush of new events, and the ceaseless 
change in nearly every locality, we can but feel that this de- 
serves the appellation of time-honored. The wants of human 
nature are identical in all ages, hence an institution to provide 
for aged females, whose declining years were saddened by 
poverty, was needed in this city sixty years ago. The com- 
mon almshouse, filled as it usually is with the'dregs of soci- 
ety, is not a place of comfort to persons of refined sensibili- 
ties. For the relief of this class, a few benevolent ladies 
were moved with compassion. Meetings for the discussion of 
their plans were held, and in the autumn of 1813 an associa- 
tion was formed, which was the nucleus of this society. The 
organization of the society occurred on the 7th of February, 



424 NEW YOEK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS. 

1814, in the session room of the Brick Presbyterian Church, 
when a constitution was adopted, and a board of sixteen man- 
agers elected. The managers held their regular meetings for 
three years in the same church, after which they were held in 
private houses, until the completion of the Asylum in 1838. 
During the first twenty-four years, the society simply gave 
pensions to its needy beneficiaries in money and clothing, and 
thought of nothing beyond. But in 1833 the plan of erecting 
a suitable Asylum was proposed. In the winter of 1834, after 
a sermon preached by Dr. Schroeder, in the Church of the 
Ascension (then in Canal street), setting forth the wants of 
the society, a collection of $310.20 was taken for the enter- 
prise. But the impression made on the audience was better 
than the collection. Mr. and Mrs. Peter G. Stuyvesant, who 
were listeners, soon presented the society with a deed of tliree 
lots of ground, the site of the present building. John Jacob 
Astor nobly headed a subscription with $5,000, on condition 
that $20,000 should be raised in a year. The ball being now 
fully in motion, many merchants and persons of wealth were 
successfully appealed to, and the amount realized. Tlie Asy- 
lum was commenced in 1837, and the following year com- 
pleted and thrown open for the reception of inmates. The 
edifice is a four-story brick, with a fine basement and sub- 
cellar, with accommodations for about one hundred persons, 
including resident oflficers and employes. 

The want of an infirmary was soon apparent, and Mr. Astor 
again pledged $3,000, which, with numerous smaller sums, en- 
abled the managers in 1845 to purchase the adjoining lot and 
complete the desired building. In 1816 the society received 
from the Common Council $300, and the year following, $250, 
which, with a recent State donation of $6,000, comprise all 
sums ever drawn from the public authorities — a fine record, 
indeed, in this age of public plunder. 

This society, being the pioneer of its kind, has exerted a 
most healthful influence in the city and country, and its man- 
agers, being selected from the several denominations, have in- 
fused its spirit into all the churches. Persons are not admit- 
ted under sixty years of age, and are required to furnish their 
own rooms, pay an entrance fee of fifty dollars, and leave 
what other property they may inherit to the Institution. No 
denominational tests are urged in the admission of candi- 
dates, though the greater number are from the Reformed 
Dutch and the Presbyterian churches. It may be interest- 



ASSOCIATION FOR RELIEF OF AGED INDIGENT FEMALES. 425 

ing to state that the Asyhim at one time sheltered a near rela- 
tive of President Washington, and has at this writing, within 
its walls, a cousin of General Lamb. The Asylum is conve- 
niently arranged, tlie rooms are large and cheerful, and per- 
fect order and tidiness reign in every department. The same 
cook has had charge of the kitchen twenty-seven years. The 
inmates have nearly all lived to a remarkable age. The obit- 
uary record shows that some died at 84, some at 85, others at 
86, 89, 93, and 97. In 1851 the vestry of Trinity church 
granted the association a burial plot in their cemetery, and 
the same year similar donations were received from the 
trustees of Cypress Hill and of Greenwood. As the Asylum 
is likely to continue for generations to come, and constantly 
enlarge its operations, all these plots and many more will 
probably be needed. 

In the winter of 1822-23 an auxiliary society was formed 
under the direction of LIi-s. E. Mowatt and Miss Ann Dom- 
inick (now Mrs. Gillett, the First Directress), the object of 
which was to provide suitable clothing for the pensioners. 
This arrangement has been continued through all these years, 
accomplishing an incalculable amount of good. The plan of 
providing for out-door pensioners did not cease with the 
opening of the Asyhim, but still continues. In 1851 their 
printed report showed that no less than eighty-seven had been 
regularly assisted during the year, and that one of these had 
died at the ripe age of 100 years, who had annually received 
aid since the formation of the society. 

The inmates of the Asylum have numbered from seventy 
to one hundred for many years past, and the expense of the 
Institution has ranged from ten to twenty thousand dollars 
per annum. Plans for the erection of a new edifice on Fourth 
avenue and Seventy-eighth street have been adopted. The 
new Asylum will be of stone, live stories high, surmounted 
by a Mansard roof, and is estimated to cost $175,000. When 
this is completed the old Asylum in Twentieth street will be 
disposed of. Notwithstanding the great niultiplix^ation of 
benevolent societies during the last quarter of a century, 
hundreds are still knocking at these doors who cannot be 
admitted until death shall remove the present inmates, or 
enlarged accommodations are provided. Services are held 
regularly by the pastors of the neighborhood, and skilled 
physicians have always freely rendered their services. 




LADIES' UNION AID SOCIETY OF THE METHODIST EPISCOPAI* 
CHUKCH. 

{Forty-second street, near Eighth a/venue.) 

lO tlie ladies of the Methodist Episcopal chnrch must 
be accorded the lipnor of founding the first denomin- 
ational Institution for the support of the aged and 
infirm members of their persuasion, whose circum- 
stances especially require it. The Home in East Twentieth 
street had preceded it twelve years, and proved the necessity 
and feasibility of such enterprises ; but this was not denomin- 
ational, and, great as had been its usefulness, there still re- 
mained a wide field in every religious organization for the 
largest endeavors of the self-sacrificing, and the charities of 
the benevolent. Under the profound conviction that a home 
should be provided for the aged and indigent of their own 
communion, a meeting was convened on tlie 4th of March, 
1850, at 459 Broadway, and was presided over by the vener- 
able Nathan Bangs. A committee of inquiry was appointed 
and several subsequent meetings held, which resulted finally 
in the adoption of a constitution, and the organization of a 
society, which consists of a board of seventy, or more, female 
managers, elected annually from the various Methodist 
churches in New York, and an advisory committee of gen- 
tlemen. 

On the 1st day of November, 1850, the building No. 16 
Horatio street was leased at an annual rent of $480, and 
soon after its doors were thrown open for the reception of 
inmates. Much of its furniture was contributed by the 
friends of the enterprise. The act of incorporation passed 
the Legislature June 19, 1851, seven months after the open- 
ing of the Institution. During the first year twenty-three in- 
mates were admitted, two of whom died, and the second year 
ten more were received, and one died, leaving an average 
family of thirty for the second year. This not only com- 
pletely filled the building, but forced upon the minds of the 
managers the necessity or providing more enlarged accommo- 
dations. About this time, a fine plot of ground on Sixty-iirst 
street and Broadway was purchased, and a plan of a build- 
ing prepared. A little consideration led to the conclusion 



LADIES UNION AID SOCIETY OF THE M. E. CHCTRCH. 427 

that these lots, situated in so eligible a part of the city, might 
be advantageously disposed of, and a much larger plot ob- 
tained thereby, farther out of town. In 1853 twelve lots 
were selected and purchased on the Kingsbridge road, at One 
Hundred and Forty-second and One Hundred and Forty-third 
streets. The increase of the price of building materials, and 
the want of available funds, delayed for two years longer the 
commencement of the much-desired edifice. But God, in His 
inscrutable providence, was preparing them a site for their 
Bethesda in one of the loveliest portions of the city, where the 
aged inmates might remain in convenient communication with 
their churches and friends. In 1855, Mr. William S. Seaman, 
an aged member of the Allen Street M. E. church, donated to 
the society two choice lots on Forty-second street, near Eighth 
avenue, on condition that the annual interest of the estimated 
value of the property should be paid to him during his life- 
time. The society promptly accepted this generous gift, soon 
purchased the lot adjoining, and the following summer began 
the erection of the Home. Mr. Seaman died nine months 
after the conveyance of the property, but his last days were 
cheered with the assurance that the cherished Institution 
would be immediately erected, on the site he had so benevo- 
lently contributed. The corner-stone of the new building was 
laid with appropriate services, September 16th, 185G, and the 
Institution dedicated by Bishops Morris and Janes, assisted by 
other clergymen, April 27th, 1857. The family, after resid- 
ing six and a half years in Horatio street, was removed to 
these more eligible quarters on May 1st of the same year. 

The edifice is a substantial brick, sixty-two feet front and 
eighty-two deep, four stories high, with a brown-stone front, 
and is constructed in the Gothic order. The main entrance, 
over which is the chapel and infirmary, projects several feet 
from the body of the building, and is reached by a broad 
flight of stone steps. The basement, which is entirely above 
ground, contains the kitchen, dining-room, laundry, store- 
rooms, and pantry, besides a broad entrance hall, all conven- 
iently arranged. On the right of the vestibule, on the first 
floor, is a commodious parlor for visitors, and on the left, one 
for committees. A large and airy rotunda adjoins, entered 
through sliding doors, lighted by a dome of sixteen large win- 
dows, which may be raised by cords for ventilation. This is 
surrounded by convenient rooms for inmates, the superin- 
tendent's being among them, and so arranged as to make com- 



428 NEW YOKK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS. 

munication easy with any or all of the family. The second 
and third stories have circular corridors, which are sur- 
rounded by pleasant apartments, each having one or more 
windows, and a ventilator. On either side of the front en- 
trance is a flight of stairs leading to the second story, where 
over the vestibule and the parlors is the tasty chapel, with 
seating for one hundred persons, and immediately above this 
is the infirmary, a large airy room, commanding an extended 
view of the city and adjacent country. When erected it was 
said to contain space for the accommodation of one hundred 
persons, but that number has never been received. It is 
heated by furnaces throughout, each room having its register. 
It is well provided with bath-rooms and Croton, has an ample 
cellar, and at its erection was one of the best ventilated and 
finest arranged buildings in the city. 

The lot purchased cost $6,400, the edifice $30,000, and in 
1867 the building adjoining was added at the cost of an 
additional $20,000. The property is now valued at $125,000. 
The purchase of the last building made space for the recep- 
tion of several aged men. Down to the time of entering the 
new building the family averaged twenty-live, since which 
it has been at least trebled, and now averages over eighty. 
Since its opening, in 1850, 194 beneficiaries have shared its 
generous hospitality, of whom 90 have died, and 21 have 
been otherwise provided for. 

At the opening of the new building a debt of $23,000 
remained against the property. The number of inmates soon 
greatly increased, prices advanced, the war and other provi- 
dences swept away many of their generous friends, and dm-- 
ing these trying periods the managers were often, like Pro- 
fessor Francke at Halle, driven in deep anxiety to the Lord 
with the pressing wants of the Institution. With much exer- 
tion the current expenses were, however, met, and the debt 
gradually reduced. In June, 1SG4, a strawberry festival, as 
is their annual custom, was held, and on the first of July at 
the meeting of the managers the proceeds were announced to 
have amounted to $588. The treasurer inquired, " Shall the 
money be used in paying the interest due on the debt at the 
Greenwich Savings Bank ? " At this point Mr. Samuel Ilal- 
sted, a member of the advisoiy committee, stepped forward 
and presented a receipt in full from the president of the 
bank. lie and his excellent brother Schureman had silently 
by subscription, raised the amount necessary to cancel all in- 



LADIES UNION AID SOCIETY OF THE M. E. OHTIECH. 420 

debtedness and to thoroughly repair and repaint the building, 
A thrill of joy at this delightful surprise ran through every 
heart, and found expression in the long-meter doxology, 
which wsis sung with great zest, all the members rising to 
their feet. 

Several grants have been received from the Common Coun- 
cil and the Legislature, though the sentiment now very gener- 
ally prevails in the denomination that such donations should 
neither be solicited nor received. The society has held 
several moderately successful fairs, realized something every 
year from donations, festivals, and lectures. It has also 
been remembered with several small legacies, among which 
we may mention that of Mrs. Bishop" Hedding, of $2,300. 

The New York Preachers' meeting annually arranges to 
supply the Home with preaching, once on each Sabbath, by 
the pastors stationed in the city. "Prayer-meetings, class-meet- 
ings, and love-feasts are held statedly, and are often seasons 
of great interest. Many of the inmates are infirm, some have 
been entirely helpless for years, and most of them live to very- 
advanced age. In 1854 Mrs. Sarah W. Kairus died, at the 
advanced age of 117 years, and the same year Mrs. Elizabeth 
Cairns, aged 100 years. " With long life will I satisfy him, 
and show him my salvation." The New York Conferences, 
during their sessions in the city, have, at the invitation of the 
managers, enjoyed some interesting tea-meetings at the 
Institution, and the old ladies have several times been agree- 
ably surprised by the members of the different churches, who 
have spread their tables with delicacies, and left other sub- 
stantial tokens of their regard. The managers now contem- 
plate the removal of the Institution farther up town, to secure 
more enlarged accommodations. The resident manager and 
recording secretary, Mrs. Matilda M. Adams, has held some 
important position in the board since the organization of the 
society. She is a lady of solid culture, of genial piety, and 
possesses in an eminent degree those varied administrative 
faculties befitting her position, and so rarely blended in the 
same person. May she and all who have toiled with her in 
this blessed work, and those whose sorrows they have as- 
suaged, meet in that Home where " the wicked cease fi*om 
troubling and the weary are at rest." 




OP rUL BRIPMLLSS, FAST l'\V t STY NINTH '^THh.l.T 



THE AMERICAN FEMALE GUARDIAN SOCIETY AND HOME FOR 
THE FRIENDLESS. 



{No. 29 East Twenty-ninth and No. 32 East Thirtieth streets. ) 

Thirty-seven years ago a number of Christian ladies in New 
York were moved to begin a work in behalf of the helpless, 
the exposed, and the forsaken. An organization known as 
the " American Female Guardian Society " was formed, and 
its executive committee for some time held their weekly 
meetings in a small rear basement under the old Tract House. 
These devoted women visited the city prisons, and the 
manufactories where hundreds of young girls were employed, 
distributing religious tracts, papers. Bibles, Testaments, giv 
ing counsel to the inexperienced, and providing situations for 
many out of employment. They also scanned the poorest 
districts, employed pious female missionaries to visit from 
house to house, to instruct and encourage the ignorant and 
desponding. Poor forsaken children, destined for the alms- 
house, were taken to their own houses and provided for until 
suitable homes could be obtained for them. At that time 
there were no " Girls' Lodging Houses," " Working Women's 
Unions," or " Homes," where innocent, penniless young females 
could apply for a night's lodging and the necessary helps to 



THE ASIERICiiJN FEMALE GUARDIAN SOCIETY. 431 

a situation. ISTo doors save those leading to the prison, the 
almshouse, or the brothel, were certain to open to the indi- 
gent, friendless, nnfortunate girl or widow, nnexpectedly 
thrown into the whirl of this great city. To guard young fe- 
males, to provide for helpless childhood, and to care for the 
sorrowing widow, seem to have been the leading thoughts 
of the association. A work so eminently Clirist-like, now 
commended by the most vile, was then watched with in- 
difference and suspicion by many of the good. The mana- 
gers of many of the pioneer benevolent associations, in their 
triumphant contests with the prejudices and calumny of their 
generations, have fought battles requiring a courage and de- 
serving the honor of a Wellington or a Washington. The 
great change wrought in public sentiment, conceriiing Chris- 
tian duty to the friendless and fallen, the decided support 
cheerfully given during the last twenty years, and the num- 
erous similar charities that have sprung up in every section 
of the country, are soui-ces of the most profound satisfaction 
to the surviving early friends of this excellent Institution. 
During the early years of the movement their records show 
that more than temporal advantage came to many houses of 
destitution, scores if not hundreds were converted to God, 
and drawn into the fold of the great Shepherd, ♦^till their 
efforts lacked concentration and thoroughness, for want of a 
building suited to their undertaking. No plan for the recep- 
tion of inmates really commensurate with the aims of the 
society was adopted until 1847, when a building situated on 
the corner of Second street and the Bowery was rented. 
About this time the managers issued a printed appeal for 
means to erect a Home for the Friendless, calling attention to 
the numbers of females constantly out of employment, and 
the scores of orphan or deserted children who, by early care, 
might be saved from pauperism and prison. <' The means 
came, lots were purchased on East Thirtieth street, and in 
December, 1848, the Home, a fine three-story brick edifice, 
with accommodations for at least one hundred and fifty per- 
sons, was dedicated, to the great j(jy of the managers, who 
had toiled amid embarrassments so many years. The sphere 
of usefulness of the society was now greatly enlarged. Hun- 
dreds were annually fed, instructed, and furnished with situa- 
tions. This Institution is not a Home for those who are 
friendless because guilty of crimes against society; nor to 
adult paupers, of whom the Scriptures say, " If any will not 



432 NEW YORK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS. 

work, neither shall he eat ; " nor yet for the aged, infirm, or 
diseased, for whom other establishments have been erected. 
It is a temporary asylum for homeless, friendless children, 
an arched and gilded passage-way from dingy, remorseless 
poverty, to a home of affection, culture, and elevation. It is 
a temporary refuge for destitute young women, not fallen, 
but within the age and circumstances of temptation, needing 
protection, and willing to live by honest toil. It contains a 
department for small children also, but such only are taken 
as afford the prospect of early adoption. Children do not 
remain at the Home over three months on an average. The 
plan of the society is a radical divergence from tlie old or- 
phan asylum system. Instead of keeping the children within 
the narrow limits of an asylum for years, forming habits and 
intimacies which must ultimately be broken, they are early 
placed in Christian homes, where daily contact with the 
affairs of common life enters largelj^ into their training. The 
act of incorporation passed the Legislature April 6, 1849, and 
was amended requiring magistrates to commit vagrant and 
deserted children to the care of this society April 3, 1857. 

In 1856 the society erected another fine building on 
Twenty-ninth street, immediately opposite the Home, connect- 
ing the two with a bridge. Thie edifice has a front of seventy- 
five feet, is four stories high, constructed of brick in the Ro- 
manesque order, and contains the chapel, the Home School 
(for the instruction of the children while remaining in the 
Institution), an Industrial School, the publication, and other 
offices of the society. The six lots on which these buildings 
stand cost originally less than $12,000, but are now valued, 
exclusive of buildings, at $75,000. The property of the so- 
ciety at present, including the four buildings purchased for 
industrial schools, is probably worth $150,000, and is free from 
debt. 

The society began the publication of the " Advocate and 
Guardian" in 1835, which has been a valuable medium of 
communication with the benevolent public, bringing hundreds 
of friends to select children or confer donations, besides bless- 
ing many with the valuable religious matter with which it has 
always been filled. It& circulation amounts to about 33,000 
at present, bringing a small revenue above its expenses. 

The society conducts its business through a president, vice- 
president, two secretaries, a treasurer, and thirty-five or more 
managers, annually elected, representing the different Evan- 



THE AMERICAN FEMALE GUARDIAN SOCIETY. 433 

gelical denominations. These are divided into the necessary 
committees, and give much time to the Institution. Seventeen 
years ago the society opened its lirst industrial school, Mrs. 
Wilson having previously established the feasibility of such an 
undertaking. It has now eleven of these schools securely 
founded in different parts of the city, with an average daily 
attendance of about 1,500 children, while the names of sev- 
eral thousand are on register. These are emphatically mis- 
sion movements, as they are established among and gather in 
the most ignorant and degraded of the population. Thou- 
sands of ragged, neglected girls treading tlie slippery glaciers 
of time, and certain to plunge after a short career of vice into 
the darkest ruin, are thus annually reached, instructed in let- 
ters, and trained to useful industry. But the influence ex- 
tends beyond the children. Tlie parents are reached, and 
soon a mothers' meeting is established. Women who have not 
seen the inside of a church in thirty years, perhaps never, are 
drawn out to a motheri meeting composed of women as ignor- 
ant and poor as themselves, where the Scriptures are read, 
prayer offered, and exhortations given by earnest women who 
go out to seek and save the lost. Many are awakened, some 
converted, nearly all are improved. Eum and other evils are 
partially or entirely abandoned, industry and its attendant 
blessings follow. The amount of good accomplished in this 
single branch is incalculable. 

Another branch is the Dorcas Department. This contains 
the garments, bedding, etc., sent in barrels and boxes from 
hundreds of churches in various parts of the country, and 
what is prepared by the benevolent in the city. From these 
shelves supplies are drawn to cover the half-naked children 
admitted to the Home, and to fit them for a long journey to a 
country home with their newly-appointed guardians. Poor 
widows and deserted women, with children, are also assisted 
to enable them to keep their families together. The demands 
on these shelves are enormous. From 1847 to 1863, over 
12,000 beneficiaries were admitted to the Home ; an average 
per annum, including readmissions, of 2,000. During the year 
closing in 1869 the report shows that 5,811 persons had re- 
ceived aid from the society, 1,000 adults had been provided 
with situations, and 452 children had been in the Home. Dur- 
ing the same period 1,650 loaves of bread had been given to 
the poor, and 42,000 loaves furnished for the children of the 
industrial schools. During the year closing in 1870, 619,000 



434 NEW YORK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS. 

meals were given away, and nearly as many furnished with 
situations as during the previous year. 

The society now carries forward its work at an expense of 
about $80,000 per annum. It has as yet no endowment, and 
has received but little from either city or State. It is emi- 
nently worthy of the contributions and sympathy of the pub- 
lic. 




HOME FOR IN-CURABLBS. 
( West Farms.) 

UR public hospitals are open for the reception of such 
patients as entertain a reasonable hope of recovery or 
relief. Were incurables to be admitted indiscrimin- 
ately, their wards would soon be filled to repletion, 
and the masses for whom they were designed would be hope- 
lessly excluded. The general provision made by the city for' 
incurables on Blackwell's Island is entirely insufficient for the 
wants of the community, leaving ample scope for the exercise 
of private charity. Many incurables not dependent on 
charity also prefer the quietude of a private " Home," 
where the ministrations of religion may be regularly en- 
joyed. The Protestant Episcopal church of New York has 
the honor of organizing the first society for the establishment 
of such an Institution in the country. The certificate of incor- 
poration bears date of April 4th, 1866. A board of twenty- 
four managers annually elected are charged with the admin- 
istration or the affairs of the society, and any person approved 
by a majority of the managers may become an annual member 
on the payment of ten dollars, a life member by the payment 
of one hundred dollars, or a life patron by the payment of 
one thousano' To secure to tlie patients greater quietude, 
purity of atmosphere, and sunlight, the Home was located in 
the country. A wood dwelling, with choice surroundings, 
situated at West Farms, two and a half miles above Harlem 
Bridge, was first leased and afterwards purchased by the so- 
ciety, and is still occupied for the Home. The residence of 
the superintendent and chaplain, who is an Episcopal clergy- 
man, stands in the rear of the Home. Though the Institu- 



nOME FOR INCUKABLES. -135 

tion is under the management of the Episcopal church, some 
charity patients have been admitted from other denominations, 
and pay patients come when they can be admitted, from all 
classes of orderly people. All admitted are said to be talcen 
for life, yet the physician's annual reports give the number of 
those " withdrawn " and " discharged," — probably those who 
have unexpectedly recovered. Persons are taken who are 
afflicted with any incurable disease at any age, but with few 
exceptions those thus far received have Ijelonged to one of 
these three classes — paralytics, subjects of malignant diseases, 
and consumptives. Several dreadful cases of cancer, attended 
with indescribable sufferings until vitality has been devoured, 
have been treated at the Home, and the society has found a 
compensation in the fact that these were cases to which no 
other hospital offered a suitable asylum. The Home was 
opened June 8th, 18G6, and during the first year seventeen 
male and sixteen female ]Datients were received, of whom 
four died and three withdrew, leaving twenty-six under 
treatment. At the close of the se(;ond year twenty-eight re- 
mained. Daring the year ending June S, 1869, fourteen had 
been admitted, eight had died, five^relieved or discharged, while 
twenty-nine remained. Seven or eight have since deceased, 
and as many more have been received. In May, 1869, a cot- 
tage a short distance from tlie Home was hired and soon filled, 
one of the managers generously presenting his own check 
for the entire rent. Most institutions boast of the numbers 
admitted and sent away in triumph, but this, from the pecu- 
liar nature of the charity, can mention only the few who, 
though far beyond hope of recovery, are so nourished and 
watclied over that life is protracted for montlis and sometimes 
years. Pay patients are admitted f<^r six dollars per week, 
unless separate rooms are taken, when the price is increased 
to eight or ten. 

Tlie Home, considering the limited numbor received, has 
been an expensive charity, the patients being for the most 
part helpless, requiring constant attention and a varied and 
liberal diet. The expenditures of the Home the first year 
amounted to $6,849.29, toward which the pay patients contrib- 
uted SI, 844. During the year ending June 8, 1869, the ex- 
penditures, including some increase of furniture and small re- 
pairs of buildings, amounted to over $14,000, toward which the 
pay patients contributed $3,343. The report at close of year, 
cJune 8, 1870, showed tliat l)esides covering all past expendi- 



436 NEW YORK A>rD ITS INSTITUTIO^TS 

tures the society had an invested fund amounting to $36,00(X 
The society has neither solicited nor received assistance from 
the public treasuries, but has been generously remembered by 
private Christian charity, A single donation fi-om Messrs, 
Henry and Chauncey Rose amounted to $30,000. From the 
estate of Peter Lorillard $2,500 have been received, besides- 
numerous smaller sums from many friends of the enterprise, 
During the last year forty-live patients have been in the In- 
stitution, of whom thirty remain. The report of 1869 ap- 
pealed for $100,000 to enable the managers to so enlarge the- 
Home as to accommodate one hundred patients. The last re- 
port follows in the same strain, recommending the erection 
of a large hall for the aged. The Institution should be en- 
larged, and doubtless soon will be. 




THE SAMARITAN HOME FOR THE AGED. 
( Corner of Ninth avenue and Fourteenth street. ) 

'HE association for the establishment of this Institu- 
tion was organized at the residence of Mrs. James 
McYickar, April 15, 1866, and the act incorporating 
the society passed the Legislature March 23, 1867. 
The enterprise was at first intended to provide for aged 
and indigent females, and grew mainly out of these two facts : 
First, the several institutions of a similar character were 
known to be so crowded that applicants were constantly re- 
fused for want of room ; secondly, because all others of the 
kind in the city, with a single exception, were denominational^ 
and their doors closed against applicants, however worthy, 
from other religious bodies. The printed circular distribu- 
ted at its organization declared that the " Home " should " be 
absolutely free from all sectarian bias, and open, in its direc- 
tion and its objects, to persons of all Protestant denomina- 
tions." That its " Board of Managers " should " always con- 
tinue to represent indiscriminately our common Protestant 
Christianity in all its various forms." At the election of its 
oflicers and managers ladies connected with the Episcopal, 



THE SAMARITAN HOME FOR THE AGED. 437 

Dutch Reformod, Unitarian, Baptist, Quaker, Methodist, 
Universahst, and Presbyterian Churches were elected. An 
advisory committee of gentlemen, a legal adviser, and a phy- 
sician, were also appointed. The society began its benevo- 
lent undertaking in a hired building at 253 West Thirty- 
seventh street, in May, 1866, ten months before its leo-al 
incorporation. None are admitted under sixty-five years of 
age, except in special extreme cases. An entrance fee of $100 
was at first required of those admitted, but the constantly 
increasing expense of living, and the uncertainties of income, 
have led the managers to advance the price to $250, The 
first inmate of the Samaritan Home was an American wo- 
man of seventy, who had always supported herself until by 
pai'tial paralysis was left helpless and homeless. 

The attention of the society was also early directed to the 
pitiable condition of many aged and homeless men. Some of 
these had been once the children of fortune, others for a 
period successful merchants, but having outlived their fam- 
ilies and encountered reverses which had swept away tlieir 
means, were now pining away the evening of their'^ career 
in saddest destitution and friendlessness. Destitute of all 
those arts of self-accommodation, that tact and skill in the 
kitchen and nursery which render the presence of an infirm 
woman more endurable and less trying to charity, how 
dreary the lot of old men who have known better days, to 
find themselves in the last twilight of existence, when retire- 
ment and comfort are so desirable, wifeless, penniless, friend- 
less, childless, or, what is still worse, to have ungrateful chil- 
dren who leave them to eke out their last sad hours in a 
crowded, squalid almshouse, with heartless ofiicials for their 
only guardians. In May, 1868, two years after the formal 
opening of the Home, the department for aged men was 
opened. Tliis necessitated the hiring and burnishing of 
another house, which was taken on the same block, Xo, 259 
West Thirty-seventh street. ■ These buildings were, however, 
unsuited to the enterprise, being old, cold, and without cellars. 
On the 1st of May, 1869, the managers leased and transferred 
the Home to the corner of Nintli avenue and Fourteenth 
street. This building is a large double house, fifty feet front, 
constructed of brick, with three stories and basement, bisected 
with halls, and is well adapted to the wants of the Institution. 
It is surrounded by fine open grounds for gardening, and is 
leased for five years, at an expense of about five tnousand 



438 NEW YOKK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS. 

V 

dollars per annum. It belona^s to the Astor property, and 
that wealthy family could hardly dispose of it better than to 
donate it to the Samaritan Home. 

Persons are received at the Home on a probation of three 
months, after which period the board takes definite action in 
the case. If the applicant is not confirmed as a permanent 
inmate, the admission fee is returned, deducting board at two 
dollars per week since the date of admission. Those admit- 
ted are expected to assist, if able, in performing the liglit work 
of the liouse and garden. No system of labor has yet been 
introduced to provide income, the inmates being too much 
broken down to perform much service. During 18G8 three 
of the aged women and one of the men passed away to the bet- 
ter land. In 1809 two more aged ladies died, and in 1870 six 
more were laid to rest. Mr. Charles T. Cromwell some time 
since presented the Home with a fine burial-place at Cypress 
Hill Cemetery, which is already occupied by the remains of 
the mouldering dead. Like all societies, this in its beginnings 
had its struggles with poverty and the indifference of the 
public, but it has passed the crisis. Its managers have not 
only met their expenditures, but have established a building 
fund which already amounts to over $20,000. Its friends are 
now anmially cheered with a few large and many small do- 
nations, besides its annual subscribers, upon whom it mainly 
relies for support. The expense of the Institution amounts to 
$9,000 or $10,000 per annum. 

Li\ing near the Home, we have often visited it and found 
it always a well-ordered asylum of comfort and refinement. 
There are now twenty aged men and twenty-four women com- 
foi'tably domiciled in their appropriate apartments, with space 
for several more. The men can be seen any day occupied 
with light tasks around the garden and yards, or reading their 
favorite books. The women, seated in easy chairs, spend their 
day between light needle-work or knitting, and in reading the 
religious magazines. All appear cheerful and contented. 
They speak of their matron, Mrs. Julia J. Trew, in terms of 
high appreciation. Divine service is conducted by some 
clergyman every Sabbath, and religion sheds it hallowed ra- 
diance among them through all the year. Turning away 
from the door of this Good Samaritan, we can but pray that 
it may long survive to pour wine and oil into the wounded 
heart of hoary humanity. 




THE COLORED HO^^IE. 

{Sixty-fifth street and First avenue.) 



ilE first meeting for the organization of this excellent 
charity is believed to have been convened at the 
residence of Mrs. Maria Banj-er, at No. 20 Bond 
street, in the autumn of 1839. The plan for reliev- 
ing the suffering poor among the colored population is said 
to" have originated with Miss Shotwell, Miss Jay, the first 
•contributor, generously presenting a thousand dollars toward 
the founding of the Ilome at their first meeting. At a sub- 
sequent meeting a board of managers was formed, a consti- 
tution adopted, and the organization perfected under the title 
of '' The Society for the Relief of Worthy Aged Colored 
Persons." It was duly incorporated in 1S45, under the title 
of '' The Society for the Support of the Colored Home." 
Soon after its first organization a building on the North river, 
known as " Woodside," was opened, and twelve inmates at 
once received. Through the liberality of Mr. Hoi-sbui-gh, 
a property on Fortieth street and Fourth avenue was pur- 
chased in 1843. The act of incoi-poration, in 1845, was 
followed by a grant of $10,000 from the Legislature, whicli 
sum had been previously appropriated toward the erection 
■of a State Hospital in this city, but was now transferred to 
the managers of the Colored Home for the erection of perma- 
nent buildings. The next j^ear arrangements were made with 
the Commissioners of the Poor, which still continues to re- 
ceive, at a very low rate, the colored paupei-s of the city, 
unless medically unfit for the Colored Home. Forty-four 
lots of ground on First avenue, between Sixty-fourth and 
Sixty-fifth streets, were purchased in 1848, and the folloM'ing 
year a portion of the buildings now occupied were completed. 
The Institution consists of four departments — the Ilome for 
Aged and Indigent. Uie Hospital, the Nursery, and the Ly- 
ing-in Department. The admissions to the Hospital exceed 
those of the other tnree divisions combined. The buildings 
at present form a hollow square, with a fine flower-garden in 
the center. Fronting on Sixty-fifth street stands the beauti- 
ful brick chapel erected in 1858, under the supervision of the 
excellent chaplain MacFarlan. Tiie first floor of this build- 



440 NEW YORK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS. 

ing contains a parlor, appropriate apartments for the superin- 
tendent, steward, physician, matron, and the dispensary. On 
the floor above is the chapel, well arranged, with galleries on 
the sides, and seatings for six hundred persons. From either 
end of this building" extend at right angles the male and the 
female wings, four stories high, capable of accommodating a 
hundred and twenty persons each. Each floor is a ward ex- 
tending the whole length of the building, and contains 
twenty'-eight beds. These wings are connected in the rear 
by another two-story building, divided into smaller apartments 
containing from five to eighteen beds each. This is devoted, 
in part, to the nursery and the lying-in department, founded 
by the bequest of Mrs. Jacob Shatzel in 1847. About fifty 
are annually received into this last-named department, who 
leave when they are able, some to service in Christian families, 
others to their old habits of vice and dissipation. The build- 
ings are heated with stoves, and baths with hot and cold 
water have recently been introduced. The nursery contains 
children over three years of age, who cannot gain admittance 
into the Oclored Orphan Asylum. The average number in 
this department is about twenty. The Institution is designed 
for the colored poor of New York county, yet, when space 
will allow, persons from outside the county are taken, and 
pay one dollar and eighty-two cents per week if they require 
medicine, and if not, one dollar and five cents, three months 
pay being required in advance. The State appropriated 
$12,000 to this charity in 1866, in 1867 $3,858, and over 
$4,000 have since been received from the same source. The 
Commissioners of Charities and Corrections pay a stipulated 
price for the board of pensioners admitted under their direc- 
tion, but this is only a moiety of what is actually expended in 
their support. The excellent Chauncey Rose remembered the 
Institution with a bequest of $16,000. About one thousand 
persons are annually cared for, at an expense of about $30,000. 
Dr. James D. Fitch held the position of resident phj-sician 
twenty-six years. The Institution has a chaplain, a resident, 
a house, and ai. assistant house physician, which receive a 
trifling pecuniary compensation for much earnest labor. 
Many of the inmates are very old, some pressing into their 
second century. Most of the inmates are pious, and, as the 
majority of them are Methodists, the chaplain is selected from 
that denomination, though ministers and missionaries from 
all evangelical churches are always well received. The in- 



THE COLORED HOME. 441 

mates hold prayer-meetings in their rooms, in addition to the 
regular services. Every winter a Christmas tree grows up 
suddenly, whose prolific branches bring forth something nice 
for every inmate, which is received with great joy. On these 
occasions addresses are delivered by some of the prominent 
men of New York, and this holiday period is remembered 
with much interest all the year. 




ST. LUKE'S HOME IN HUDSON STUEET. 

■ST. LUKE'S HOME FOR INDIGENT CHRISTIAN FEMALES. 

{Madison avenue and Eighty-ninth street.) 

This Institution was originally opened in tlie city of New 
York, on May 1,1852. A year or two previous to that, an 
aged feinaie called at the rectory of St. Luke's church, in 
Hudson street, and asked the rector. Rev. Isaac H. Tuttle, 
whether there was not an asylum or a home of the Episcopal 
church, where a lady oi fourscore might find a retreat for her 
remaining days. The good man replTed, " Madam, I am sorry 
to say our churcli has none, hut by the grace of God it shall 
have ; " and from that day lie set abcuit the work of estab- 
lishing that much-needed Institution. On St. Luke's Day, 
October 18, 1851, he preached a sermon on the importance 
•of founding a Home of this kind.' He conferred with some 
'of his clerical bretliren on the subject, and invited several 
of liis congregation to meet sd, .the rectory and consider the 



ST. Luke's home for iitoigent christian females. 443 

subject. Soon a constitution was adopted, and a subscription 
liberally signed to support the charity. Two floors in a build- 
ing were first hired, and several women, who had some em- 
ployment, were allowed to occupy these furnished rooms 
gratuitously. Next an entire building was leased, the first floor 
rented for a store, and the remaining three occupied as the 
Home. Such as lacked the means of procuring food were 
assisted by their personal friends, or by members of St. Luke's 
church. After a few years, its managers resolved to make 
the enterprise more genci-ai, and to enlarge its plans and 
accommodation s. 

The Legislature passed an act of incorporation in 1856 or 
1S57, and it thus passed from a parish to a general institution 
under the control of the Protestant Episcopal chm-ch of New 
York. The real estate and finances are vested in a board of 
managers numbering not less than seven or more than twenty- 
one ministers and laymen of the Protestant Episcopal church, 
of whom the bishop of the dio^-.ese is the president, and the 
vice-president is the rector of the Institution. An associate 
board of lady managers has charge of the internal workings 
of the Institution, and now numbers in its board representa- 
tives from thirty-eight churches. About the time of its in- 
corporation a large'brick dwelling immediately adjoining St. 
Luke's church was purchased, the ground being leased for a 
term of years. This edifice was afterwards enlarged, Init was 
never large enough to accommodate over thirty-two inmates 
at one time. A desire for a larger edifice led to an effort 
to collect a building fund, and $19,000 thus collected were 
deposited in United States securities in the safe of the Royal 
Insurance Company, which was robbed, infiicting a loss of 
§14,000 on this society. This delayed the erection of the new 
building several years, but the difficulty has been overcome. 
On the 'eighteenth of October, 1870, the coraer-stone of the 
much-desired structure was laid by Bishop Potter, in the 
presence of a large number of the clergy and citizens of New 
York. 

Tlie building is located on the north-east corner of Madison 
avenue and Eighty-ninth street, one block from the Central 
Park, and two blocks only from one of the principal en- 
trances to the Park. 

The building is four stories high and in the form of an L, 
with main entrance on the comer ; it extends eighty feet on 
Madison avenue and seventy-five feet on the street. The 



444 NEW YORK AND ITS INSTI'lTJTIONS. 

sijle is medieval Gothic, with Mansard roof, and three towers. 
The materials are Philadelphia pressed brick trimmed with 
Buena Yista stone. 

On the first floor is a vestibule, a fine octagonal hall, 15 x 
15, a large room, 38 x 19, for the meetings of managers, and 
a dining-room, 33 x 19, intended to seat some sixty or seventy 
persons ; the whole so arranged that by opening folding-doors a 
sweep of over seventy-three feet can be obtained. Back of the 
main entrance hall is a roomy inner private hall and corridors 
leading to dining-room, etc. On the same floor will also be 
found the matron's room and oflice, the infirmaries, the rector's 
and doctor's ofiice, and five chambers, adapted to the use of 
such of the inmates as may, through great age or infirmity, 
find it difficult to ascend the stairs. 

Two elevators ascend to the upper story, and three stair- 
ways afford means of escape in case of fire. There are 208 
doors, 114 windows, 67 marble wash-basins, and 77 rooms, 
affording space for seventy-four inmates. The building was 
erected with the strictest economy, and cost $55,000. 

On grounds contiguous to the Home, Miss Caroline 
Talman has just erected a small church, a memorial of her 
deceased parents, thus securing to the beneficiaries of the 
Home a convenient place for public worship. 

Applicants for admission into the Home must be persons 
of respectability in reduced circumstances, and members of 
churches represented in the board of associate managers, 
and contributing to the support of the Institution. An ad- 
mission fee of one hundred dollars is required from each 
beneficiary, and the person is then received for life. Every 
inmate, if able, is required to keep her own room in a neat and 
clean condition, to take her turn in dusting the parlor and in 
washing the dishes; but if ill, her meals are carried to her 
room, and the attention of the physician and the nurses 
promptly provided. The Institution contains a library of 
pleasant and interesting books, and visitors read to those who 
are sick or unable to read for themselves. The old ladies at 
the Home, in March, 1867, formed themselves into a benevo- 
lent society, to fashion little garments for the children of the 
" Sheltering Arms," another Institution of the same denomin- 
ation. The material they obtain from their friends outside, 
and do much more than one would suppose. The firat year 
after their organization they gave away 25 pairs of hospital 
slippers, 109 garments, 48 pillow-slips, 2 dresses, and 15 



ST. LUKE S HOME FOR INDIGENT CUEISTIAN FEMALES. 445 

paii-s of knit stockings. Thus, while they receive, they find it 
blessed to give. Many applicants have long been waiting 
admission into the Home, and a year or two since one actually 
died of joy on receiving the welcome summons to enter the 
Institution. Rev. I. H. Tuttle is still the chaplain of the 
Institution. His presence among the inmates is always as a 
ray of sunshine, and to him are referred all differences and 
difficulties. 




PRESBYTERIAN HOME FOR AGED WOMEN. 

(East Sevmty-tldrd street.) 

The first Presbyterian clnirch in IMew York was erected 
in 1719, since which many costly structures have been 
reared, and the denomination now ranks among the most 
populous, wealthy, and benevolent of the city. But while 
the members of" this church have contributed liberally to 
many excellent enterprises, it is a little remarkable that no 
charitable institution distinctly Presbyterian was ever pro- 
jected until very recently. In April, 1866, several ladies, 
members of the different'^ Presbyterian churches of the city, 
moved with the laudable desire to provide for the poor mem- 
bers of their own communion, invited tlieir pastors to confer 
with them and consider the propriety of establishing a 
'* Home for Aged Women," in whose advantages Presbyter- 
ians might specially share, and in whose direction they should 
have entire control. The meeting was held in the lectui-e- 



PRESBrXERIAN HOME FOR AGED WOMEN. 447 

room of the First Presbyterian church, and was entirely suc- 
cessful. The facts disclosed at this conference showed so 
clearly the want of such an Institution, that the pastors and 
members present pledged a cordial support in the undertak- 
ing. A board of thirty-two female managers, and an advis- 
ory committee of five gentlemen, were accordingly elected, 
and measures taken to immediately inaugurate the enterprise. 
On the eighth of June the building No. 45 Grove street, then 
known as the " Lincoln Home," which had been a temporary 
hospital for disabled soldiers and sailors, was rented, and 
after much cleansing pronounced ready for occupation. 
The first inmate was received on the ninth of July ; the next 
day another was added ; on the twenty-third one more, and 
the report at the end of the year showed that fifteen had 
been admitted. No regular matron was appointed until 
October, and her oflicial relation to the Institution was dis- 
solved the following spring, and the present incumbent ap- 
pointed. The society continued its operations in the same 
house until April, 1870, when, its new and commodious build- 
ing having been completed, the family was removed to it. 
The house in Grove street was never able to accommodate 
over thirty, besides the matron and servants ; hence a small 
number only of those anxious to gain admission could be re- 
ceived. During those four years,"however, fifty beneficiaries 
were admitted, "three of whom died the second year, six the 
third, and several the year following. Among the inmates 
the managers mention the mother of a Presbyterian clergy- 
man, the widowed mother of a devoted and successful mis- 
sionary to China, and the daughter of Dr. McKnight, one of 
the early pastors of the First Presbyterian church of this city. 
The act of incorporation passed the Legislature December 
7, 1866. The Institution is called the Presbyterian Home, but 
its doors are open to Congregationalists, to the Eeformed 
Dutch, and to the several divisions of the Presbyterian fam- 
ily, making it very general in its character, certain of numer- 
ous beneficiaries, and of liberal supporters. All applicants 
for admission must be sixty-five years of age, residents of Xew 
York city, having been three years a member of the church, 
and recommended by the church session. Three dollars per 
week must be paid for board, and at death the funeral ex- 
penses defrayed by the church or party made responsible at 
her entrance. V 

The auspicious beginning of the enterprise led the man- 



448 NEW YORK AN-D ITS INSTITUTIONS. 

agers at the close of the first year to confident^ appeal to the 
benevolence of the denomination for the means to build and 
furnish an asylum in some sense adequate to the wants of 
the churches interested. This was soon responded to by 
Mr. James Lenox, by the donation of four choice lots of 
ground on Seventy-third street, between Madison and Fourth 
avenues, worth $40,000. Donations of money came also 
from many sources, so that at the end of the year $13,000 
were invested as a building fund, and the third report showed 
that $62,000 had been contributed toward buiMing. The 
building when completed was appropriately dedicated,_ Drs. 
Paxton, Murray, Thomson, Hall, and several distinguished 
laymen taking part in the exercises. The edifice is an elegant 
four-story brick, trimmed with Ohio freestone, surmounted 
by a chaste tower, and is charmingly arranged for the accom- 
modation of the inmates. All its rooms and halls are lighted 
from the exterior. There are two staircases extending to the 
upper story, and its heating and ventilating apparatusare of 
the most approved character. The basement contains kitchen, 
laundry, and other appropriate rooms. The first floor con- 
tains visitors' room, committee-room, and well-arranged chapel, 
with seating for a hundred and fifty persons. The next floor 
has an infirmary, a ladies' room, and the rooms for the most 
infirm. The interior is supplied with iron doors, and the 
entire structure nearly fire-proof, the staircases being of iron, 
with little wood-work exposed to the action of fire. The 
edifice cost over $100,000, and is the finest building of its 
kind yet reared on the island. The Institution will, however, 
soon be too small to accommodate the aged and worthy poor 
of the one hundred and sixteen churches connected with the 
enterprise. May these consecrated homes of piety and rest 
for the comfort of the worthy poor be multiplied in all our 
denominations, until saintly pilgrims are no longer left in 
penury to suffer alone. 




UNION HOJEE AND SCHOOL. 



{One nandrcd and Fifty-first street and the Boulevard.) 

The care of orphan and friendless children is always one of 
the first duties of Christian civilization ; but when the parents 
of these dependent ones bravely sacrificed their lives in de- 
fence of their native land, the least that a nation's gratitude 
can do is to provide maintenance and culture for their helpless 
ofi'spring. On the 22d day of May, 1S61, a few patriotic 
■women, almost without means, but impelled by the pressing 
necessity of making some provision for the children of those 
who Avere certain to be sacrificed in the impending struggle, 
organized the " Union Home and School for the ]\taintenance 
and Instruction of the Children of our Volunteer Soldiers and 
Sailors.'* The act of incorporation passed the Legislature 
April 22, 1862. Until 1867 the Institution was carried on 
in an inconvenient hired building not capable of accommodat- 
ing over eighty children, and supported by the contributiona 



450 NEW YOKK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS. 

of the benevolent, an occasional fair, and some small State- 
appropriations. In 1867 a large festival was planned, from 
which the handsome sum of $98,998.40 was realized. This 
enabled the managers to pay all their outstanding indebted- 
ness, including the mortgage on a building and six lots of 
land purchased the previous year for $28,000, on Fifty-eighth 
street, and make other preparations for enlargement. About 
this time the propriety of removing the Institution to the 
country, where land was cheap, began to be discussed, and ac- 
cordingly a large frame building, known as the " Laurel Hill 
Seminary," at Deposit, Delaware county, was purchased and 
repaired, at an expense of over $16,000. The building, how- 
ever, did not prove satisfactory, the children suffered with 
diseased eyes, and arrangements were made to remove again 
to New York. In the spring of 1868 the managers purchased 
the Fields mansion, situated at One Hundred and Fifty-iirst 
street and the Boulevard, with ten lots of ground, for $32,000. 
The property on Fifty-eighth street has since been sold to pay 
for this new property at Washington Heights. The Fields 
mansion is a large brick edifice, with stone facings, seventy 
by eighty feet, and when purchased was three stories high. 
Over $11,000 were expended in repairs. But when the fam- 
ily had just settled, the ladies were notified by the Commis- 
sioners of Central Park that the edifice must be removed at 
least twenty-five feet, by April, 1869, to make way for the 
opening of the Boulevard. What would have once been con- 
sidered an impossibility has been successfully accomplished ; 
the building was moved forty feet, improved with two addi- 
tional stories and a Mansard roof, at an expense of about 
$25,000. When compelled to remove the children for the- 
removal and repairs of the building, it was proposed to trans- 
fer them to the building at Deposit, but about that time news 
was received that this building had just been destroyed by 
fire. Its value was nearly covered by insurance. Happily an 
old-fashioned country house near Harlem bridge was leased 
for a few months, until the building at Washington Heights- 
could be put in order. On the Cth of June, 1870, the newly 
refitted Home and School was reopened with appropriate ser- 
vices, the children having been previously transferred to it. 
The building is well adapted to its use, and has accommoda- 
tions for three hundred and fifty children. The kitchen^ 
laundry, and dining-room are in the basement. The fii'st 
floor contains the reception-room, a fine committee-room, a 



UNION HOME AND SCHOOL. 451 

larffe chapel, and two school-rooms, which can be connected 
with the former for Divine service. The other stories are de- 
voted to dormitories, school-rooms, etc. One room is called 
the armory, and contains the boys' nniform and miniature 
sabres, which they are allowed to wear on public occasions. 
Several acres of ground at least should be connected with the 
Institution, to afford the play and exercise necessary for the 
health of the youthful inmates. The location is certainly one 
of the finest in the world, situated on a lofty eminence, fanned 
with pure breezes, and surrounded with trees and yards of 
surprising beauty. The lofty observatory affords a command- 
ing view of the Hudson and the East rivers, the New York 
bay, and the surrounding country. Up to January, 1870, 
three thousand and forty children had been admitted. The 
only condition required for admission is proper evidence that 
they are the children of soldiers or sailors, and that the sur- 
viving parent, if any, is unable to support them. No pay- 
ment is required for food, clothing, or instruction. No papers 
cf surrender are requij-ed of the parent, to whom they are 
cheerfully returned as soon as aljle to provide for them, and 
their vacant places are immediately filled with other needy 
applicants. The schools appear to be well conducted. The 
present matron, Mrs. E. M. Cilley, has very creditably con- 
ducted her work. The Common Council and the Legislature 
have made several handsome appropriations toward this en- 
terprise. The Institution is free from sectarianism, and 
clergymen of all denominations are welcomed to the Home. 
Another fair was held in December, 1870, in the Twenty- 
second Armory, New York city, but, owing to the fact that 
an unusual number of cliarity fairs had just been held, less 
interest than formerly was taken in this, and the proceeds 
did not exceed twenty thousand dollars. The patriotic ladies 
who have so nobly carried forward this commendable charity 
are worthy of all honor, and merit the thanks of more than 
soldiers or soldiers' children. Mrs. U. S. Grant is the chief 
officer of the society, having gained the presidential chair 
several years in advance of her husband. 




THE FEMALE CHRISTIAN HOME, 

(No. 314 East Fifteentli street.) 

fills Institution was established in the summer of 1863, 
by an association of benevolent Ckristian ladies, in a 
small hired building, No. ISO East Seventeenth street. 
The object of the organization was to provide a re- 
spectable Christian home, at moderate expense, for women 
obliged to earn their own livelihood. The enterprise proving 
a success, the managers, in 1867, purchased the building Xo. 
14 East Thirteenth street for $18,000. The number of in- 
mates in this building never exceeded thirty-three at one 
time, and the numerous applications made by worthy females 
induced the managers to dispose of this property and enlarge 
their accommodations. In May, 1870, the Home was removed 
to the newly purchased building, Ko. 314 East Fifteenth street. 
The building is a beautiful four-story brown-stone, with 
high basement, twenty-six by seventy feet, and cost $29,000. 
From its windows the inmates overlook the Stuyvesaut 
Square park, rendered vocal with feathered songsters, beauti- 
ful and fragrant witli waving branches and blooming flowers. 
The Home now stands in one of the choicest blocks in that 
portion of the city, and has the appearance of a private resi- 
dence. An indebtedness of $10,000 remains on the property 
at this writing, which the enterprising managers will proba- 
bly remove ere this volume sees the light. The building 
contains apartments for fifty inmates, and is far too small to 
accommodate the multitudes anxious to gain admission. 

The price of board varies from three dollars and a half to 
five dollars per week, according to the room occupied, use of 
furniture, food, fire, and light being included. Kone are ad 
mitted without satisfactory testimonials to the propriety of 
their conduct, the respectability of their characters, and theii 
expressed willingness to submit to the regulations of the 
Home. ' 

The matron is charged with the conduct of the house, the 
keeping of the daily accounts of purchases and donations, 
and the enforcement of the rules. 

Morning and evening prayer is regularly conducted, and 
each inmate is required to be present. A Bible-class is con- 



THE HOME FOR FRIENDLESS WOMEN. 453 

dncted every Sunday afternoon, and all the inmates are ex- 
pected to attend. 

The receipts from the boarders during the last year covered 
the expenses, exclusive of rent, furniture, etc. The inmates 
consist of students, teachers, sales-women, book-keepers, copy- 
ists, and those employed in the various departments of needle- 
work. 

Young ladies from the country, spending a few months of 
study or business in New York, should apply, and count 
themselves liappy if admitted to one of these Christian Homes 
established during the last few years for the safety and com- 
fort of their own class. 



THE HOME FOR FRIENDLESS WOMEN. 

{No. 86 West Fourth street.) 

DEEP and abiding interest during the last few years 
, (; ^ has been manifested in the condition of fallen women, 
";^QJ and of those who stand on the slippery precipice ready 
to descend. This interest is not confined to us nor to 
our country, but is being similarly manifested in all Christian 
lands. A few years ago, a devoted Christian lady in Glasgow 
became concerned about the outcasts of her sex, and resolved 
to go to work in their behalf. Meeting in the street one of 
the lowest of this class, she procured her lodgings in a poor 
but pious family, clothed her, and labored with her until she 
saw a change. Then she procured her employment. Encour- 
aged with her success, and strengthened with pious asso- 
ciates, arrangements were made for enlarging the enterprise. 
Street girls were taken, and soon more applied than could be 
admitted. In twelve months they reported two hundred and 
fifty fallen women reclaimed, many of whom gave evidence 
of saving faitli. Only twenty of those admitted had relapsed, 
eighty-five reformed girls had been restored to their parents, 
forty were employed as servants, forty-five in miscellaneous 
employments, and sixty-six still remained under their care. The 
Home for Friendless Women in New York was organized l)y 



454 NEW YORK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS. 

a number of Christian ladies and gentlemen in 1S65, and the 
building No. 22 West Houston street, having been leased, 
was opened with suitable religious services on the 27th of 
December of that year. At the close of the first year their 
report showed that one hundred and twelve had been admit- 
ted, of whom fourteen had been dismissed for bad conduct, 
twelve went out of their own accord to former habits, ten of 
the thirty-two sent to situations left them, yet after inquiring 
into the conduct of those returned to friends, and of those re- 
maining in the Institution the society believed that sixty per 
cent, of the whole number had been saved. The second year 
eighty-two were admitted, but one sent away for miscon- 
duct, two placed there by friends escaped, forty-six were pro- 
vided with situations, twenty-three returned to their fiiends, 
five sent to other institutions, three were honorably married, 
and thirty-two remained. Eighty-five per cent, this year 

fave evidence of reformation. During the five years closing 
anuary, 1871, the whole number admitted amounted to four 
hundred and twenty-six, about seven-tenths of whom appear 
to have reformed. The society continued its operations in 
Houston street until May, 18G9, when a more eligible build- 
ing was taken at No. S6 West Fourth street. The building 
in Houston street was in the midst of the evil it sought to 
remove, and consequently many drifted in with little desire 
to reform, and after annoying the inmates were either dis- 
missed or else departed of their own accord to join old asso- 
ciations. The change in location has been followed by a cor- 
responding change in the chai-acter of the applicants. Tlie 
class hardened by long years of crime less frequently apply, 
while those drawn away from the path of virtue b}'' misplaced 
affection, sudden temptation, or the most fruitful of all causes, 
destitution, are still readily reached. The Home is pleasantly 
located « Its long double parlor on the first floor is also the 
chapel, where divine service is regularly conducted on Sabbath 
afternoon and on Tuesday evening by a city missionary, where 
a Bible class convenes twice each week, taught by the female 
managers, and where family worship is daily conducted by 
the superintendent and others. The windows of the upper 
stories look out upon the beautiful Washington Square park, 
with its sliaded walks, crystal fountain, and waving trees, 
made vocal with the melody of their feathered songsters. 

Still it is far from being adequate to the demands of the 
undertaking. It can well acc(jnnnodiite only thirty, beside the 



THE HOME FOK FKIENDLESS WOMEN. 4r55 

officers, with suitable lodgings and work-rooms, hence scores 
if not hundreds annually apply in vain, who might be re- 
formed and saved if suitable accommodations could be se- 
cured. The managers have felt the necessity of classifying 
and grading the inmates according to their moral status, of 
introducing a system of promotions, and of devoting a depart- 
ment to indigent young women in danger of ruin, who might 
depart from the Home without necessarily carrying with them 
a diploma of degradation. A Lying-in Asylum is also a nec- 
essary appendage of an institution of this kind, without which 
they are compelled to turn away the class in which the largest 
number of true penitents is found. This wise, systematic 
management cannot be successfully executed in a small, ill- 
arranged, and crowded building. The managers have ap- 
pealed to the public for $50,000 to build or purchase a suit- 
able Institution, which we hope Avill be soon forthcoming. 
The twenty thousand or thirty thousand fallen women of the 
city, whose numbers are steadily increasing, should remind 
us that too few institutions for their recovery have been 
founded, and those few on too small a scale. That multi- 
tudes of these might be reformed has been already proved, 
yet the managers truly say that " those saved during the past 
ten years by all the institutions of New York working for this 
class will not equal the number mustered out by death dur- 
ing a single year." 

Several causes conspire to fill great centers of population 
with fallen women. 1. Many grow up without the opportu- 
nities of refinement, crowded together in a miserable tene- 
ment-house where six or twelve persons sleep in the same 
apartment. The proprieties of life, if ever known, are soon 
forgotten. 2. The demoralizing tendencies of public amuse- 
ments, and the desire for greater display than common in- 
dustry can support. 3. Destitution. The methods by which 
their recovery is sought are: 1. Kindness. 2, Toil. 3. Wise 
and imwearied religious effort. Industry is one of the best 
appliances for reformation. At the Home, sewing, paper-box 
making, and other species of toil are prosecuted, and each 
mrl, to stimulate her energies, receives half her earnings. 
The religious services have been crowned with most gra- 
cious results. Under the appeals of the man of God, troop- 
ing memories of that land of early innocency have come 
rushing through the soul, and many have broken down out- 
right and wept convulsively. Many have professed religion, 



456 NEW YOKK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS. 

and several after obtaining situations have united with the 
church. 

The financial affairs of the society are under the control 
of a board of gentlemen managers, while the internal and 
domestic management is conducted by ladies. The Home is 
maintained without any charge to the inmates, at an expense 
of about ten tliousand dollars pei- annum. It is Protestant, 
but not denominational. 




WOjMEX'S prison association of new YORK. 



THE ISAAC T. HOPPER HOJIE." 



(iVb. 313 Tenth avenue.) 

This Institution was founded in 1845, by the distinguished 
gentleman whose name it bears, as the " Female Department 
of the New York Prison Association." It is managed by a 
board of thirty ladies, who are elected annually by the mem- 
bers of the society. 

Mr. Hopper belonged to the Society of Friends, was for 
many years inspector of prisons in Philadelphia, and finally 
entered into the work of reforming criminals with a love and 
zeal only less than that of a Howard. He continued the 
agent of the society up to the period of his death, in 1S52, 
performing an incredible amount of service for the trifling 
salary of $300 per annum. Known to be in moderate cir- 
cumstances, the society repeatedly proposed to increase his 
salary, which he as persistently I'efused, though his successor's 
was immediately fixed at $2,500. 



458 NEW YORK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS. 

His excellent daughter, Mrs. J. S. Gibbons, the correspond- 
ing secretary of the society, who partakes so largely of the 
spirit of her father, is the only surviving member of the orig- 
inal organization. 

Mr. Hopper's long familiarity with prison life led to the 
profound conviction that nothing could be done for the refor- 
mation of female convicts without entirely separating them 
from the opposite sex, and placing them under the exclusive 
control of suitable persons of their own sex. Hence the or- 
ganization of " The Wome?i's Prison AssociationP 

The work undertaken by this society is the most difficult 
in the world, requiring a mingled wisdom and tenderness, 
connected with a moral heroism found nowhere but in culti- 
vated and sanctified woman. The objects of the society are, 
" the improvement of the condition of prisoners, whether de- 
tained on trial or finally convicted, and the support and 
encouragement of reformed convicts after their discharge, by 
affording them opportunity of obtaining an honest livelihood 
and sustaining them in their efforts to reform." It is a death 
grapple with sin in its strongest dominion — the heart of a 
disgraced and ruined woman. The sympathy the society 
received from the public, during the earlier years of its his- 
tory, was not flattering. The habit of regarding and treating 
the convict as the irreclaimable enemy of society was too 
common even with good people, and a holy horror seemed to 
fill the minds of others that a society to benefit such creatures 
had been formed, as if humanity and sympath}' for criminals 
were an endorsement of crime. Its principal encoui'agement 
came from its fruits. Sometimes the helpless victims of 
wrong suspicion and unjust commitments were found. Here 
was an easy victory for the right, accompanied with the in- 
describable joy of lifting up a crushed and despairing soul. 
Many were found who from childhood had been uttei-ly per- 
verted by example and instruction, so that all the springs of 
motive and action needed purifying. But having never known 
the path of life, or felt the full power of sacred truth, they 
soon melted under the softening appliances of reclaiming 
mercy. 

Others, after years of grossest error and shame, gave evi- 
dence that the moral sense was not entirely obliterated, that 
there remained still a spring that responded to the touch of 
human kindness. In the melting atmosphere of Christian 
tenderness, nourished by saintly example, and encouraged by 



WOMEN 3 PRISON ASSOCIATION OF NEW YORK. 45 1> 

the voice of religious instruction, in many instances the lat- 
ent seeds of early culture have budded into a life of blessed 
fruit and promise. In some instances melancholy victims of 
drunkenness, bloated, loathsome, friendless, and apparently 
hopeless, after spending a '' term" in the cell, have returned 
to this " Home " for amendment. The kind appeal has 
brought the irrepressible tear, the encouraging smile, the 
blush of animated hope; reproof* and cautioii have been 
responded to with confession and promise of amendment. 
The boisterous tone is subdued to mildness, the defiant eye 
quails before sympathy and interest, a tide of pent-up emo- 
tion and affection bursts out to gladden the deliverer, who 
feels it infinitely " more blessed to give than receive." 

But there have been also many lamentable failures. Some- 
ran well for a time and then relapsed into old habits, to pass 
through the same processes of arrest, trial, and commitment^ 
and then to plead successfully again at the '• Home " for oppoi-- 
tunity of amendment. Some have been so positive in evil 
courses that more restraint was necessary to preserve the 
order of the Home than the managers were willing to exer- 
cise, and so have been dismissed. It is confidently believed, 
however, by those longest connected with the Institution, that 
over sixty per cent, of all sent out from it have done well. 
Many have married and now fill respectable stations in society,. 
Bending frequent and grateful communications, and some- 
times donations of money, to the Home. 

For several years after organizing, the society carried oa 
its operations in a hired house, trying to raise the means to 
build. Failing in this, it finally purchased the house it had 
occupied at No. 191, now No. 213 Tenth avenue, for $8,000, 
paying down only one- fourth of the amount. The building 
was sadly out of repair, and about $8,000 more have been 
expended in improvements. It is now a commodious, four- 
story brick, with brown-stone basement, with accommodations 
for fifty persons. The Common Council has made them a few 
small appropriations, but the society claims, and we think 
justly, that these have been most meager, since their whole 
labor and expenditures have been for those who would other- 
wise have been a permanent pest and expense to the city. 
There are no special tests for admission. All are received 
on trial, and if sincere in the matter of reformation receive 
every encouragement. If faithful and contented for one 
month, the society pledges to provide them a situation and 



460 NEW YORK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS. 

furnish them with comfortable apparel. If refractory they 
are dismissed, but taken at the next application, for another 
trial. Scores are sent away to service every month, and as 
many more received from the prisons. Many remain con- 
nected with the Home, and go out as seamstresses by the week 
or month. These spend their Sabbaths at the Institution, 
where their washing is done for them, and pay fifty cents per 
week to the society, and retain the residue of their wages. 

Those in the Institution are employed at sewing and laun- 
dry work, which always gives the best satisfaction to cus- 
tomers, and which the managers make renumerative. In 
1852, when 154 were received, the receipts from labor amount- 
ed to $1,090. In 1866, when 286 were received, the receipts 
from labor amounted to $1,155.47, and in 1869, when 408 
were admitted, the receipts from labor amounted to $1,996.77. 

Since the organization of the Home, in 1845, the society 
has received 4,897 persons, an annual average of 187, the 
larger number of whom, notwithstanding all their discour- 
agements, have gone out to lead virtuous and useful lives. 

The expenditures of the Institution now amount to from 
six to eight thousand dollars per annum, and the income is 
about able to balance them. Prudent management has 
enabled the managers to cancel all their indebtedness. In 
1865 the Home received a legacy of $50,000 fi*om Charles 
Burrell, Esq., of Iloboken, New Jersey ; and during 1869 a 
bequest of $500 was received from Miss Louise C. Parmly 
of this city, daughter of Dr. E. Parmly, one of the originators 
of the Men's Prison Association. The interest only on these 
sums is used. The Institution is preeminently Protestant, 
tliough the largest number by far who have shared its 
benefits have been Poman Catholics. One evening in each 
week is devoted to a general prayer-meeting, and two public 
services are conducted every Sabbath by the city missionaries, 
the pastors of the vicinity, or by theological students from 
one of the seminaries. The managers, physicians, and clergy- 
men, have always served gratuitously. An evening school 
is also conducted in the Institution by a competent instructor, 
with very good results. 



ROMAN CATHOLIC HOME FOR THE AGED POOR. 

{No. 447 We.it Thirty-second street.) 



JOR many years the yonng have been industriously 
r jW sought out and carefully educated by American 
<^^ Catholics, but, until recently, their aged poor of both 
^^ sexes have been almost wholly neglected in all 
schemes of denominational charity. Their convents, institu- 
tions of learning, and cathedrals have risen rapidly in every 
part of the country, but not an institution for the infirm and 
indigent, who liad given all their savings through life to the 
Church, was undertaken until about three years ago. About 
that time several members of the community known as the 
" Little Sisters of the Poor," organized in France in the year 
1840, came to this country and established the first institution 
of their order in the city of Brooklyn. Eleven have now 
been organized in different parts of the country, and others 
are in contemplation. 

The Sisters hold and manage their institutions, collecting 
and begging the means for their maintenance from door to 
door. The Institution in New York was opened at No. 443 
West Thirty-fourth street, in a hired building, on the 27th of 
September,'^1870, and removed to No. 447 West Thirty-second 
street on the 15th of the following December. There are 
twelve sisters connected with the enterprise, four of whom 
go out almost constantly gathering money and supplies from 
any and all available sources. The supeiioress, Mother Sidonie 
Joseph, is one of the group that came from France as before 
stated. The Sisters began without a chair or table, and with 
no money, we are told, but so pressing have been their im- 
portunities that the public has been compelled to heed their 
demands, and they now occupy three fine brick buildings 
adjoining each other, which they have leased for two and 
one-half years for the yearly rental of $1,700 each. Besides 
paying the rent of over $400 per month, they have managed 
to plainly furnish their buildings, and are now providing for 
a family of nearly one hundred aged and afl[iicted persons. 
Besides providing accommodations for the Sisters, the build- 
ings contain space for about one hundred and ten persons, 
which will doubtless soon be filled. The Sisters occupy the 

26 



462 NEW YORK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS. 

central building, No. 447, the second floor of which has been 
converted into a chapel, where mass is said regularly by a 
priest. No. 445 is devoted to the aged men, and No.^ 449 to 
the aged women. Persons of good moral character in indi- 
gent circumstances are taken for life without money or 
goods, and without regard to sex or nationality. Several of 
the inmates are not active Koman Catholics, though they are 
not Protestants. We gladly chronicle this auspicious begin- 
ning of denominational charity for the relief of the aged 
and destitute of this sect, so populous in all our great cities, 
and hope these enterprises may be still more widely ex- 
tended. Every society should, if possible, provide for the 
relief of the unfortunate and destitute of its own faith. 




CHAPIN HOME FOR THE AGED AND INFIRM. 



VERY denomination of Christians and Jews in New 
York city has found it necessary to make provision 
for the poor and unfortunate of its own pale, and the 
march of benevolent enterprise in this direction for 
the last few years has been exceedingly gratifying. Sorae- 
thing more than two years since, a society, composed prin- 
cipally of members of the Fifth Avenue Universalist church 
(Rev. E. H. Chapin, pastor), was organized, for the purpose 
of founding and maintaining a home for the aged indigent 
of their society and acquaintance. The society encountered 
such discouragements as usually attend enterprises of this 
kind. During the last year several lots were purchased by 
the managers, situated on Sixty-sixth and Sixty-seventh 
streets, between Lexington and Third avenues. A fair to 
aid in the accomplishment of the enterprise was held in the 
armory of the Twenty-second Regiment, for a number of days, 
beginning April 10th, 1S71, which netted the society about 
$10,000. Subscriptions have been vigorously circulated,_and 
about fifty thousand have at this writing been thus realized. 
The Legislature has also recently favored the Institution with 
a donation of $10,000. With these sums the managers are 



THE BAPTIST HOME FOE AGED AND INFIKM PEKSONS. 463 

now erectiiio^ the " Cliapin Home," which will probably be 
furnished and opened for the reception of inmates some time 
during the present year. 



THE BAPTIST HOSIE FOR AGED AND INFIRM PERSONS. 

HE " Ladies' Home Society of the Baptist churches 
of the City of New York " was duly organized, and in- 
»,j^^^ corporated,, March 19, 18G9, with the design of provid- 
ing aged, infirm, and destitute members of their de- 
nomination with a comfortable home in which to spend the 
last years of life. The payment of three dollars or more con- 
stitutes a person an aimual member of the society ; fifty dol- 
lars constitutes a life member, and one thousand, a life patron. 
The constitution provides that eighty female managers, mem- 
bers of Baptist churches or congregations in the city of New 
York, shall control the Institution, and shall hold their ofiices 
three years respectively, one-third retiring each year. Appli- 
cants as beneficiaries must be recommended by their pastor, 
and the deacons of the church to which they belong, as in 
good standing, and without the means of support. An en- 
trance fee of $100 is required. 

The first anniversary of the society was held in the Madi- 
son Avenue Baptist church, March 31, 1870, when a vigorous 
and successful effort was made to complete the subscription 
of §100,000, which had been asked for at the commencement 
of the enterprise, for the purpose of purchasing grounds and 
erecting buildings. Noble responses were not only made to 
this permanent f una. but liberal subscriptions also toward the 
annual support of the Home. Encouraged by these expres- 
sions of interest, the managers leased for two years the 
building No. 41 Grove street, at an annual rent of $1,800, 
which they furnished, and on the 30th of June formally 
opened with thirteen inmates and a temporary matron. As 
no part of the permanent fund, or its interest, could be ap- 
plied for current expenses, the ladies planned a fair which 
was held in the following November, in Apollo Hall, corner 
of Twenty-eighth street and Broadway, and which netted the 
society $10,689. 



464 NEW YORK AKD ITS INSTITUTIONS. 

The Legislature, during a late session, passed an act direct- 
ing the Commissioners of the Sinking Fund of the city of 
New York to lease to the society ten lots of ground, situated 
on Lexington avenue, between Sixty-seventh and Sixty-eighth 
streets, for the nominal rent of one dollar per annum. The title 
to this ground was promptly accepted by the trustees of the 
society, though the wisdom of the measure was seriously ques- 
tioned by many friends of the enterprise. Several public 
meetings, to discuss the matter, were held by the subscribers, 
and other members of the denomination, in which strong 
men were arrayed on either side, but at the final vote of the 
members of the Home Society a majority sanctioned the ac- 
tion of the trustees. This unfortunate measure has, however, 
greatly disturbed the harmony of the society and unsettled 
its plans of building, some of the subscribers refusing to pay 
their subscriptions. This deliberate and emphatic protest 
against State and municipal endowments of denominational en- 
terprises, entered into by so many earnest and thoughtful men, 
is an earnest of the sentiment rapidly developing in all the 
Protestant denominations, and certain to, sooner or later, con- 
trol the Legislation of this country. While we can but regret 
that this false step has been taken in the early history of this 
society, we still wish it great prosperity, with many and lib- 
eral supporters. 

There are now in the Home twenty-three inmates, several 
of whom are very aged, and one is in her ninety-fifth 
year. In this home of refinement. Christian influence, and 
comfort, relieved from toil and anxiety, they pleasantly spend 
the evening twilight of time, and serenely await the coming of 
their Lord. 



HOME FOR AGED HEBREWS. 

^N the autumn of 1848, Mrs. Henry Leo, a devoted 
Jewess of New York, was called to visit an afflicted 
woman of her own faith. She not only found her a 
great sufferer, but enshrouded in deepest poverty and 
destitution. While affording relief in this case, her mind was 
impressed that some general movement should be inaugurated 
for the relief of age^ indigent Hebrews. Attending service 




nOME FOR AGED HEBREWS. 465 

at the synagogue soon after, she laid the matter with great 
earnestness before a munber of the hidies of the congrega- 
tion, and on the 21st of November, 1848, the " B'nai Jeslnt- 
run Ladies* Hehrew Benevolent Society,^'' for the reh'ef of 
indigent females, was formed, and rules for its government 
adopted. Mrs. A. li. Lissak, and Mrs. David Samson, de- 
ceased, were among its presiding officers, and the Rev. Ansel 
Leo acted for many years as honorary secretary. On March 
.20, 1870, at a meeting of the board of directresses held in 
the Thirty-fourth Street synagogue, the President, Mrs. Henry 
Leo, the chief foundress of the society, presented a report 
calling attention to the number of destitute aged and infirm 
Hebrews in the city, who were constantly making application 
for relief which the society was unable to confer ; also urging 
the ladies to devise some practical measure which, when adop- 
ted, might furnish permanent relief to these distressed and 
suifering co-religionists, without interfering with the original 
objects of the organization. 

After a full discussion, it was determined to call a general 
meeting of the society, which was held on the 13th day of 
March at the B'nai Jeshurun synagogue, a large attendance of 
lady members attesting the interest they felt in the cause and 
the subject which had brought them together. The object of 
the meeting having been fully stated and explained to them, 
the following resolutions were offered : 

Wliereas, It is quite evident that we must provide some 
means to care for the aged and infirm of our persuasion who 
are increasing in numbers, and are destitute of the common 
necessaries of life, many without friends and any visible 
means of support ; therefore, be it 

Resolved^ That it is incumbent upon us, bearing in mind 
the sacred tenets of our holy faith, to care for all such ; and, 
viewing also the misery now endured by Hebrew women, 
unable to earn a livelihood, unacquainted with any trade, 
or when able to sew, etc., refused work ; tlierefore, be it 

Resolved^ That we hereby authorize our board of direc- 
tresses to provide for all such destitute co-religionists ; open, 
establish, and maintain a Home for Aged and Infu-m Hebrews, 
and adopt all rules and regulations for the government of the 
same ; also a school of industry, where sewing and the like 
may be taught to those unskilled, and where work obtained 
shall be given out to such poor women as need it to manufac- 
ture, the profits arising from same, after deducting certain ex- 



466 NKW YOKK AND ITS INSTIVUTIONS. 

penses, to be given to them for tlieii benefit. And, be it 
also 

liesolvt'dj Tliat we authorize our president and board of 
direetrcsses to make expenditures from the treasury of our 
society, and adopt any measure they tliink proper for carry- 
ing out the objects and purposes expressed in the foregoing 
resolutions. 

A quorum l)eing present, the resohitions on motion Aver& 
unanimously adopted. 

In compliance with the foregoing, a committee was ap- 
pointed from the board of directresses'^ who after much trouble 
succeeded in t)btaining a lease of the building No. 215 West 
Seventeenth street for one year, and on the twenty-fourth 
day of May, ISTO, the hous'e was declared formally opened 
and dedicated as a Home for Aged and Infirm Hebrews, it 
being the first and only Institutitui of the kind in the State of 
New York. 

The industrial school formed has given remunerative em- 
ployment io hundreds of Hebrew women, and to some of the 
Christian faith also. The Home in Seventeenth street is a 
brick cottage, capable of acconunodating about fifteen per- 
sons. A building fund has been established, and besides dis- 
bm-sing $5,000 during the year in support of the Home, 
and on other charities, several thousand dollars have accumu- 
lated toward the purchase of permanent buildings. The soci- 
ety is composed of several hundred ladies who pay an annual 
subscription of five dollars each. As the adherents of this 
faith in Xew York are not lacking in wealth, enterprise, or 
liberality, we presume it will not be long ere a large and 
well-ordered home for the aged shall have been provided. 



THE LADIES CHRISTIAN UNION, OR YOUNG WOMEN'S HOIIK 
(Ifos. 27 and 28 Washington sqxiwre. ) 

;HF benevolent of New York have been much en- 
'*>& gaged during tlie last fifty years providing asylums 
^i^^i and homes for orphans, half-orphans, tlie aged, blind, 
deaf, and for many otherwise afflicted. The morally 
fallen have received recently such attentions as were hitherto 
unknown. But amid these multiplied charities a numerous 
and interesting class of virtuous persons, much in need of 
care and help, was long overlooked — that class of girls and 
3'oung women, who, by the death of parents, the reverses of 
fortune, the loss of a situation, or of health, are either thrown 
suddenly upon their own resources or the uncertain charities 
■of a calculating world. In large cities, wliere fortunes are 
suddenly lost, and where most of tiie casualties of society oc- 
•cur, this class of persons is always unpleasantly large. In 
November, 1858, a number of Christian women, representing 
several different denominations, convened for the purpose of 
forming the " Ladies Christian Association of the City of New 
York," their special object being " the temporal, moral, and 
religious welfare of women, particularly of young women 
-dependent upon their own exertions for support." 

In May, 1800, the first "Home" in America for virtuous 
" Young Women" was opened by this society in a hired dwell- 
ing at No. 21 Amity place. Here it continued two years, 
when it was removed'^to No. 160 East Fourteenth street, where 
three more years were spent, when it was removed to Nos. 
174 and 176 of the same street. 

-' The act of incorporation passed the Legislature April 5, 
1866, under the name of "The Ladies Christian Union of the 
City of New York." The need of a permanent l)uilding, 
larger and better arranged than any hitherto occu])ied, had 
been long felt. The importance of the undertaking had been 
•demonstrated from the first; more had thronged the doors 
than could be admitted. During the first four years one 
hundred and sixty-one had been admitted. During the fifth 
jear seventy-five persons were admitted. An earnest appeal 
for funds to purchase or build a suitable edifice, published in 
the report for 1866, brought the noble response of $1,000 



403 NEW YORK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS. 

from an unknown fi-iend, with a pledge for $4,000 more^ 
afterwards increased to $9,000 more, on condition that 
$50,000 should be procured within a given time. The 
amount was finally subscribed, though owing to some reverses^ 
it has never all been collected. On the first of May, 1868, 
the Home was removed to its present location, on the north- 
east corner of Macdougal street and Washington square. 
The managers purchased two four-story brick houses, with a 
front of fifty-five and oue-lialf feet, the lots being one hun- 
dred and twenty-five feet deep (containing brick stables in 
the rear), for the sum of $50,000. The buildings front on 
Washington Square park ; tliey are substantially built, with 
high ceilings, are well arranged and ventilated, and for con- 
venience or access, purity of air, and pleasant surroundings, 
could scarcely be excelled on this portion of the island. The 
basement furnishes a fine kitchen and laundry, a dining, and 
a sewing room. The first floor contains two fine parlors, a 
committee room, the apartments for the superintendent, and 
others for transient boarders. The upper stories are devoted to 
lodging- rooms, with baths on each floor. The carpeting, bed- 
ding, and furniture all display neatness and taste ; the walls 
are ornamented with pictures and various specimens of art 
wrought by the inmates. The ladies contemplate adding 
another story, with Mansard roof, as soon as their funds will, 
admit of it. A small debt still remains on the property. 
The Home at this writing contains eighty-seven inmates, and 
is always, except in the extreme heat of the season, full. 

It is not purely a charitable Institution. Each inmate pays 
a weekly board of from $3.50 to $6, according to her cir- 
cumstances and the room she occupies. A relief fund has 
been established to assist those who through sickness, loss of 
employment, or other causes, find themselves unable to pay 
their board. When the buildings are owned and furnished 
the income from the boarders will about pay the expenses. 
The girls are all of an interesting class. Many of them are 
the daughters of clergymen and other distinguished gentle- 
men. Every inmate is required to be either engaged in. 
something useful or fitting for it. Of 29 inmates, in 1865, 
18 were artists, one a copyist, three were teachers, eight dress- 
makers and seamstresses; 203 different inmates were re- 
ceived during 1869, of whom 19 were artists, 33 teachers, 70 
seamstresses; the remaining 81 were saleswomen, book-keep- 
ers, copyists, etc. Many young ladies tarry here wliile com- 



THE LADIES CHKISTIAN CTNION. 469 

pletlu^ their education. Some teacli in private families, 
some in the public-schools, some are pupils in the school of 
design, others work at embroidery or some other species of 
ingenious handicraft. There are hours for receiving com- 
pany, when both sexes are admitted, but all are required to 
depart at ten in the evening. The Home is well supplied 
with books and periodicals. The house committee holds 
a meeting every Friday from twelve to one o'clock, when 
applications for admission are received and acted upon. 
Satisfactory testimonials of character are required in all 
cases, and valid reasons for their remaining in the city. 
Unmarried women only are received, preference being 
given to the younger class. The Institution being an 
outgrowth of the great awakening of 1857, and the 'third 
article of the constitution making advancement in active 
personal piety the first duty of the members, it is not surpris- 
ing that the religious element has always been a marked feat- 
ure in the movement. Family prayer is daily conducted. 
Every Thursday evening a Bible class is taught at the Home, 
and on Wednesday at eleven a.m. a ladies' prayer-meeting is 
held at the social parlors, over the chapel of the Broadway 
Tabernacle, corner of Thirty-fourth street and Sixth avenue. 
Sectarianism is ignored, all attend the churches of the neigh- 
borhood on the Sabbath, and many of the young women teach 
in the Sunday schools. The Home has been the spiritual 
birthplace of many thoughtful young ladies, and from its 
well-ordered circle some have ascended to the "House of 
many mansions " on high. 

The superintendent, Mrs. S. F. Marsh, formerly the wife 
of a clergyman, a lady of rare executive and social qualities, 
with a nature too kind to be soured and too brave to be dis- 
couraged, has presided over the Institution with very great 
success for the last eight years. May she, with that associa- 
tion of pure spirits which established "^this model and pioneer 
Home, and who have so long and successfully toiled to ele- 
vate the young women of our day, reap the richest fruit of 
Christian toil on earth, and an imperishable crown beyond 
the grave. 




HOTEL FOR WORKING WOMEN. 

{Fourth avenve and Thirty-third street.) 

MERICA presents greater attractions to the laboring 
ises tlian almost any other conntry in the world. 
Its abundance of cheap, but valuable land, its free 
schools, E.e])ublican government, and religious liberty, 
coupled with the liberal remuneration of toil, and the respect 
of the laborer, rendering it of all countries most desirable for 
ambitious industry. There is a benevolence, also, which finds 
expression in the opening of "boarding-houses," "homes," 
and " hotels," for the comfort and advancement of those who 
toil singly and alone for an honest subsistence. 

Mr. 'Alexander T. Stewart, who has hitherto done little 
toward placing his name among the benevolent of the metrop- 
olis, has recently, we are told, set aside six millions of dollars 
for the erection of two immense structures, one for working- 
women, and the other for working-men. The structure for 
working- women, which is now nearly completed, stands on 
Fourth avenue between Thirty-second and Thirty-third streets. 
The building, which is of iron, and fire-proof, has three fronts; 
that on Fourth avenue being one hundred and ninet^'-two feet 
six inches, those on Thirty-second and Thirty-third streets, two 
hundred and five feet respectively. The area covered by the 
structure is forty-one thousand square feet. The main build- 
ing will be six stories high, with an additional story, in Mansard 
roof, and over the central portions of each front, a space of one 
hundred feet, there will be an additional story with a super- 
imposed Mansard roof, making the centre of each front eight 
stories. At the extremities of these centi-al elevations, and 
also at the street angles, are turreted towers, twenty-four feet 
in width and hciglit. The entire central height will be one 
hundred and nine feet. 

The grand entrance on Fourth avenue has a width of forty- 
eight feet ; the portico is two stories high, with massive clua- 
tei' iron columns, resting on octagonal-shaped j^edestals, and 
bi-.pporting foliated capitals. The design of the structure, 
with its difi^erent stories, tlieir piers, columns, pilasters, and 
arches, crowned with the unique towers, presents a finished 



THE WATER-STREET DOME FOR WOMEN. 471 

architectural desio;!!. The first story contains twenty-four 
line stores, each fifty-two feet wide and seventy feet deep. 
A wide stairway conducts to the interior. A portion of the 
halls are covered with marble. A steam elevator, runnintj to 
the upper floor, ascends on either side of the staircase. 'The 
stories are high, averaging from nineteen feet six inches to 
eleven feet five inches. There is a large interior court-yard, 
ninety-four feet by one hundred and sixteen, which is to be 
ornamented with fountain, gold fish, etc. The whole struc- 
ture is heated by steam coil, the engine being so arranged as 
to work the elevators, drive in hot weather an immense fan 
for cooling the apartments, and afford mechanical appliances 
to the kitchen and the laundry. The dining-room is thirty 
by ninety-two feet, and another room of the same size is to be 
used for concerts, lectures, etc., and still another of similar 
dimensions will contain the library, and be the reading-room. 
The inmates are to pay a fixed price for the use of rooms ac- 
cording to their size and location, and tlie board will be con- 
ducted on the restaurant plan. If the proprietor really deals 
as liberally with the inmates as some now suppose, this Insti- 
tution, situated in an eligible portion of the city, will be a 
% aluable acquisition to the toiling women of Manhattan. 



THE WATER STREET HOiEE FOR WOilEN. 

(iVo. 273 Water street.) 

£^X^URING the summer of 1868 the reading public was 
1,,^^^ startled with a series of well-written articles published 
-^^^ in Packard's Monthly, and partially reprinted and 
commented upon by most of the papers, purporting 
to set forth the career of the " Wickedest Man in New York.' 
The attention of the city was thus called to the condition of 
society in Water street and its vicinity, and so profound was 
the conviction, in many thoughtful and pious minds, that 
something should be undertaken for this sin-blighted locality, 
that it resulted in a noon-day prayer-meeting, established in 
the dance-house of John AUeii,^ and conducted with much 
fervor for a considerable period. Thougli the effort did not 



472 NEW YORK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS. 

result in the conversion of a large number from the neighbor- 
hood, it considerably sobered many, and had an excellent 
effect upon Christians of all denominations who took part in 
the undertaking. 

Water street contains a few wholesale business houses, con- 
ducted through the day by amiable gentlemen residing in other 
places, but the resident population of the locality is perhaps 
the most depraved and infamous on the entire New York 
island. Murder and robbery have never been as frequent 
here as during the worst days of the Five Points, but for low 
groggeries, scandalous brothels, and dance-houses, where 
every sentiment of decency is ignored, and the whole popu- 
lace reduced to the lowest scum of moral degradation, the 
locality has long been unrivaled. Sailors and roughs of the 
lowest order, whose means will not admit them to houses 
equally disreputable but higher up on the ladder, here assem- 
ble nightly to waste their money and lives in drink and fran- 
tic revelry. The dance-house girls, also, are the most ignorant 
and helpless of their class. Many of them, reared in the 
neighborhood, have little knowledge of anything better, 
and little compunction for a life of crime. Some of them 
have never seen the better parts of the city, attended school 
or church, or been in any manner reached by the ministra- 
tions of religion. 

They are the slaves of the proprietor in whose miserable 
shanty they dwell. He claims as his property the miserable 
garments they wear, so that, when one attempts to escape from 
brutal treatment, she is not unfrequently arrested for theft, 
and thrown into prison. 

It was in this slum of moral putrefaction, after the excite- 
ment of the noon-day meeting had subsided, and religious 
efforts in the locality had been mainly suspended, that the 
Eev. William II. Boole, a member of the New York East 
Conference, and pastor of one of the city churches, under 
the inspiration of " a profound and responsible conviction," 
opened this Home and refuge for fallen women. The founder 
believed that greater good would result from an institution 
founded in the midst of this sea of social crime than from 
one removed from the locality, because of the ready access 
afforded those for whose benefit it was opened, and the 
reformatory influence it would exert in the neighborhood. 
Like the ladies at the Five Points, he was enabled to seize 
upon one of the chief citadels of corruption in the locality. 



THE WATER-STKEET HOME FOE WOMEN. 4:73 

The " Kit Burns Dog-Pit," rum, carousal, and brothel shop, 
had obtained a world-wide notoriety, the proprietor gathering 
lucre from the most brutal and corrupting expedients ever 
tolerated in a civilized town. The proprietor of this estab- 
lishment, with no sympathy in the object of the mission, was 
strangely moved to ofter his building for the moderate rent 
of one thousand dollars per annum, obligating himself to con- 
tinue the lease for six years. The lease was at once taken, 
and the work of cleansing and remodeling the premises un- 
dertaken. The building is a four-story brick, twenty-five by 
thirty-four feet, with a rear extension which originally con- 
tained the " pit," but which has since been changed into a 
kitchen and several bath-rooms. On February 8, 1870, in 
presence of a vast concourse of people that crowded the 
building, the "pit," and the adjoining street, the Insti- 
tution was solemnly dedicated by the Rev. Bishop Janes, the 
Pwev. S. H. Tyng, G. W. Woodruff, S. W. King, and W. 
McAllister taking part in the exercises. The addresses con- 
tained many pungent ntterances, and produced a profound 
impression. The Home was not formally opened for the 
reception of inmates until the 10th of March, 1870, and in a 
short time the applications for admission were so numerous 
that many were turned away for want of room to accommo- 
date them. 

In projecting the Institution, it was believed that some dif- 
ficulty would be experienced in drawing these abandoned 
creatures into it, and it was proposed to hold evening meet- 
ings in the hall set apart for public worship, to which it was^ 
hoped they might be attracted, and so impressed with truth 
as to be led to seek refuge and aid in this Christian Home. 
But as more than could i5e admitted have from time to time 
presented themselves, without solicitation, no plans for reach- 
ing^ them have been necessary. 

The internal management of the Home is under the direc- 
tion of two resident matrons and a missionary, who are con- 
stantly employed in self-sacrificing labors of love, and who are 
heartily identified with the movement, receiving no stated 
salary, but trusting entirely to the unsolicited contributions of 
the friends of the cause for their supplies. The matrons have 
charge of the domestic department, direct the girls in their 
household duties, and conduct the religious meetings when 
held exclusively with the inmates of the Institution, in which 
they are assisted by Clu'istian ladies from the city. The mis- 



474: NEW YORK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS. 

■sionary, Mr. Henry M. Little, has charge of the Sabbath 
])reachuig, the daily and evening prayer-meetings held in the 
hall, and acts in concert with the matrons in the general ad- 
ministration of the Home. The duties of the day begin and 
end witli prayer, in which all join. 

A general prayer-meeting is held on Tuesday evening, and 
another on Thnrsday evening, of each week, when the mis- 
sionary is assisted by Christian brethren from the up-town 
chnrches. These services are designed to reach the vile young 
men of the neighborhood, and have in some instances been 
crowned with marvelous results. Men so dissipated and reck- 
less as to have been wholly abandoned by their friends, and 
given over as quite incorrigible, have drifted into these ser- 
vices, where they have been awakened and converted, after 
which they have returned to their homes and pursued honest 
careers. A young Englishman of liberal education, and who 
had benn a journalist, but by dissipation and otlier vices had 
sunk h.mself to the depths of despair, resolved to commit sui- 
cide. He filled his pockets with brick, and stood on the pier 
for the fatal plunge. By some influence the dreadful act was 
delayed, he went to the Water-street prayer-meeting, was re- 
claimed by Divine grace, and has stood firm for months in a 
pious and useful career. Other examples might be given. 

The only condition of admission to the Home is a desire to 
reform, though they may not know by what process the refor- 
mation is to be effected. The managers believe that nothing 
short of Divine grace can reform a fallen woman ; hence they 
desire to retain each inmate until she has been genuinely 
converted to God, and thus rendei-ed sufliciently strong to 
lead a virtuous life on her return to the outside world. A 
genuine change of heart is the first, last, and great thing 
sought by the managers in the reception of an inmate. In 
the meantime work from the stores is taken, eacli inmate re- 
ceiving one-half of her earnings. The labor thus far, how- 
ever, has not been very productive. During the first five 
months after the opening of the Home, about one hundred 
inmates were admitted, some of whom were pronounced the 
" most desperate characters of the street." But few of them 
returned to their old ways, many became industrious, tidy, 
and serious, and about ten per cent., it was thought, gave evi- 
dence of a changed heart.^ But with the more perfect or- 
ganization of the Institution has been given also a larger 
measure of spiritual influence, and we learn that more than 



THE WATER-STREET UOIDS FOR WOMEN. 475- 

fifty per cent, of all admitted during the last six months have 
deliberately entered upon a genuine Christian career. The 
labors of Christian ladies, wlio assemble several times each 
week to mingle prayers and exhortations with the inmates in 
their upper rooms, have not failed of gratifying results, and 
are more effective than services conducted by persons of the 
opposite sex. 

Meetings for song, conversation, and social intercourse are 
also held occasionally in the parlor under the direction of the 
resident ofKcers. Friends from the neighborhood and otliera 
are sometimes invited t(j attend. These gatherings are charac- 
terized by all the freedom of a well-ordered family, and at 
some of tiiem conversions have occurred. More than once since- 
its opening, that devoted Christian vocalist, Philip Phillips, has 
volunteered to sing his choicest songs to the inmates of the 
Home and the assembled populace of that demoralized neigh- 
borhood. On one occasion, a careful distribution of handbills 
and complimentary tickets through the dance-houses and 
liquor saloons of the locality brought together an immense 
ci'owd of both sexes, even filling the platform, on which Mr. 
Phillips sat, with abandoned women. An eye-witness said» 
" It was indeed a novel entertainment for those ears, always 
filled with blasphemy and foul speech, to hear 'Singing for 
Jesus,' from the silvery lips of our sweet singer in Israel. 

"At times the deep silence was almost painful ; and when 
Mr. Phillips sung the ' Dying Child,' there was scarcely a 
dry eye among those so little accustomed to weep. The songs 
were interspersed with those short, sweet exhortations which 
Mr. Phillips so effectively uses to promote the deeply spirit- 
ual character of his singing, and on this occasion were more 
than nsually blessed in their appropriateness and effect. 
When, near the close, he asked how many would join in the 
request for prayer and try to live a better life, more than 
forty hands went up, and several of the women near him said 
aloud, ' I will, Mr. Phillips ; I will try.' " 

The founder of the Water Street Home for Women is not 
wealthy, and at the beginning invested the few hundred dol- 
lars he possessed to obtain the lease and pay the rent for a 
part of the first year. It required a large faith in the infinite 
Provider to launch an enterprise of this character in this 
locality, against the judgment of so many excellent people;. 
yet, believing himself Divinely directed, he set about the- 
work without fear. The Home is carried on exclusively 



476 NEW YORK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS. 

as a 'Viorh of faith, no solicitation in any form being made 
for funds, except prayer and reliance npon God. In the right 
time means came to defray the expense of repairing, furniture 
was contributed, and bread given. The rule is not to incur 
debt. More than once " the last loaf has been eaten" at supper, 
with no knowledge of what should be on the morrow, but lie 
that feeds the ravens has through His servants sent a timely 
snpply. May the Home never lack encouragement ! "We re- 
joice in the auspicious opening of another refuge for the 
most despised and helpless class in this sin-darkened world. 
Truly there is something appalling in the case of a fallen 
woman. A man may descend to deepest prodigality, waste 
his substance and become a companion of harlots, yet his re- 
turn is hailed with highest joy. But a fallen woman is pro- 
nounced lost, and given over as incorrigible. Her reformation, 
if not openly ridiculed, is long viewed with distrust, even by 
the excellent of her own sex. This movement in Water street 
has already resulted in the discontinuance of eight or ten 
brothels in the vicinity, and the policemen patrolling the lo- 
cality pronounce it much iraproved. 




THE FIYE-POIXTS MISSION. 



{No. 61 Park street.) 



A quarter of a century ago the Five Points in New York 
presented the most appalling state of society on the American 
continent. The locality was a low valley between Broadway 
and Bowery, originally covered by the Collect pond, and the 
name was acquired by the converging of three streets instead 
of two, one of the blocks terminating in a sharp point. The 
ground, being marshy and uninviting, was settled by the poor 
and dissolute, mostly from foreign countries, who by degrees 
became so notoriously disorderly, that it was not considered 
safe for a respectable person to pass through it without a 
police escort ; and these officers were often maltreated and 
murdered' About fifty thousand ]:)ersons inhabited this local- 
ity, without a Protestant church, or a scliool, bidding utter 
defiance to all law and decency. There were underground 
passage-ways connecting blocks of houses on different streets, 
making crime easy and detection difficult. Every house was 



478 NEW YORK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS. 

a filthy brothel, the resort of persons of every sex, age, color, 
and nationality. Every store was a dram-shop, where from 
morning to morning thieves and abandcmed characters whetted 
their depraved tastes, concocted and perpetrated crimes and 
villainies, rendering day and night hideous with their incessant 
revelries. 

The respectable inhabitants living within five minutes' walk 
of this appalling carnival were astonishingly indifferent t.> 
the fearful degradation which there existed, many believing 
that the majority among them preferred to riot in wretched 
vices, to starve upon the scanty wages of crime, to be housed 
in kennels, poor-houses, or jails, racked with loathsome disease, 
and scourged by the law, rather than dwell in quiet respect- 
ability by their own careful industry. 

To the ladies of the Methodist Episcopal church must ever 
be accorded the high honor of inaugurating measures for 
carrying light into this God-forsaken valley of moral blackness. 
As early as^lS48 the Ladies' Home Missionary Society of this 
denomination, having previously established several missions 
in different parts of the city, which have since grown into large, 
flourishing churches, turned its attention toward this long- 
despised center of abandoned humanity. Impressed with 
the magnitude and difficulties of their undertaking, the so- 
ciety selected a number of Christian gentlemen of high stand- 
ing, who were constituted an advisory committee, upon whom 
it "has always safely relied for counsel and means. In the 
spring of 1850, Rev. L, M. Pease, of the New York Conference, 
was appointed to this unpromising field. A room, twenty by 
forty feet, at the corner of Little Water and Cross streets, was 
hired, fitted for holding service, and on the first Sabbath 
filled with the most motley, filthy, and reckless group that ever 
crowded a religious service. A lady described it as " a more 
vivid description of hell than she had ever imagined." The 
Sunday school began with seventy unruly scholars. For a 
time confusion reigned. The boys would turn somersaults, 
knock each other down, and follow any other vicious inclina- 
tion. > Order and system were gradually introduced, and in 
time this school became as orderly as any in the city. 

Intemperance was the univei-sal crime and curse of the lo- 
cality, and it soon became evident that nothing could be ac- 
complished unless this fiery tide could be arrested. A series 
of temperance meetings were commenced (which have been 
continued more or less ever since), and over a thousand signed 



THE FIVE-POINTS MISSION, 



4?J 



tbe pledge the first year. The next chief difficulty in the 
way of success was the universal poverty of tlie population. 
Keiormati-on with many involved immediate starvation, unless 
some new channel of industry could be opened. The hunger 
of a starving family must be somewhat appeased with bread 
before their minds can be interested in the Gospel. Mr, 




TIIK FIVE-POINTS MISSION. 



Pease, with characteristic energy, soon arranged to supply a 
hundred with needle-work, l)Ocoming personally responsible 
to the manufactories, suffering constant pecuniary loss on ac- 
count of the poorness of the work. This industrial depart- 
ment required his constant attention to prevent thefts and 
losses ; drew him in pait away from the pastoral and outside 
spiritual toil contemplated by the managers, which, with 
some unfortunate business complications, resulted at length in 
the severance of his connection with the Ladies' Missionarv 



480 NEW YOEK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS. 

society. Mr. Pease gave evidence of the deepest devotion to 
his worli, and surprised all his friends by early making his 
residence and removing his family into the center of this 
abandoned neighborhood, that the whole weight of his in- 
fluence and toil might be thrown into the movement. 

The next year Rev. J. Luckey was appointed to this field. 
The accommodations of the Mission were totally inadequate, 
and measures were set on foot to secure permanent buildings. 
Mr. Harding generously offered the society the use of the 
Metropolitan Hall for a public meeting, the Hutchinsons and 
Alleglianians volunteered to sing gratuitously, and Revs. 
Beecher and Wakeley to speak on the occasion. The hall 
was crowded, and $4,000 secured for the Mission. The next 
year the hall was again tendered, and John B. Gough lectured 
to a delighted audience, which subscribed $5,000 toward the 
Mission. In 1852, after mature deliberation, the society pur- 
chased the Old Brewery, a name it bore from the business 
once carried on in it, for the sum of $1G,000. The large 
building was at this time in great decay, but inhabited by 
hundreds of the most desperate characters in the city, and 
was the acknowledged headquarters of crime in this fearful 
locality. There were dark, winding passage-ways extending 
through the whole edifice, various hiding places for criminals, 
and dark, damp rooms, where scores of wretched families 
herded promiscuously together. The avenue extending around 
the outside of the building was familiarly known as " Mu7'- 
derer's Alley " and " The Den of ThievesP To demolrjh this 
literal pandemonium and erect in its place a temple of mercy 
to humanity, and of worship to God, was one of the noblest 
triumphs of Christianity. Inspection proved the building in- 
capable of repair ; it was pulled down, and on the 27th of Jan- 
uary, 1853, the corner-stone of the new building was laid by 
Bisiiop Janes, of JS'ew York, several distinguished clergymen, 
representing different denominations, taking part in the exer- 
cises. On the sixteenth day of the following June it was 
solemnly dedicated to the service of education and religion ; 
and the managers and missionaries, with feelings too deep for 
expression, found themselves in possession of a brick building, 
seventy-five by forty-five feet, and five stories high, containing, 
besides a neat parsonage, chapel, and school-rooms, two stories, 
extending over the entire building, to let at reasonable rates 
to suitable families. »• The schools, which had been conducted 
in a temporary wooden building in the park, were transferred 



THE FIVE-POmTS MISSION. 481 

to their commodious rooms, the parsonage was furnished by 
members of the different Methodist churches, and everything 
assumed an aspect of thrift and progress. 

The day school has been successfully conducted by compe- 
tent instructors through these twenty-one years, averaging 
from four hundred to five hundred scholars daily, affording 
the means of culture to many thousands who must otherwise 
have groped in profoundest ignorance. The usual per capita 
appropriation from the State educational fund is made to the 
Institution. 

The Sunday school is also large. A visitor is constantly 
employed by the society to canvass the neighborhood and look 
after absentees. The children receive a lunch each day, 
which amounts to about one hundred and thirty thousand ra- 
tions per annum given to the hungry. The scholars are all 
clothed by the society, and many garments and bed-quilts, 
besides articles of food and fuel, are furnished to their indi- 
gent parents. A large congregation assembles morning and 
evening on the Sabbath to listen to preaching by the mission- 
ary ; a weekly prayer-meeting and a class-meeting are also well 
sustained. A " Free Library and Reading-room " has recently 
been opened. The number of converts remaining at the 
Mission is never large, as reformation is usually followed by 
improved business opportunities, when they unite with the 
regular churches in tlie city or elsewhere. Through the liber- 
ality of a friend who bequeathed the society $22,000, the 
Board has recently made a fine addition to the building, 
greatly improving the facilities of usefulness. The property 
of the society is now valued at about $100,000. The society 
has for the last ten years issued a small monthly paper, 
entitled ''A Yoice from the Old Brewery," which, besides 
acknowledging all receipts of money and goods, contains 
many spicy articles of general interest. It has a steady cir- 
culation of 4,000. The society was duly incorporated in 
March, 1856. Over two thousand destitute children have been 
place in Christian homes, most of whom have risen to re- 
spectability and usefulness, and quite a number to wealth and 
distinction. Situations haVe also been furnished to many 
thousand adults. The work of the society is conducted at a 
cash expense of over $20,000 per annum, not mentioning the 
thousands of dollars' worth of clothing, produce, etc., re- 
ceived and distributed from churches and friends all over 
the land. 



482 NEW YOEK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS. 

Daring the twenty-one years of its operations, six different 
ministers have been successively employed by the society as 
resident missionaries or superintendents, a traveling financial 
agent having been also employed during most of the time. 
The present superintendent. Rev. J. N. Shaffer, a man of 
great prudence and perseverance, has now entered upon hi& 
tenth year of successful and unceasing toil in this_ critical 
field. Great credit is due the Ladies' Home Missionary Society 
for the marvelous change wrought in this locality during 
the last two decades, for though other vigorous organizations 
are now in the field, it must ever be remembered that thi& 
society wrought out the plan, furnished the stimulus, and 
ti-ained the chief founders of those kindred Institutions in its 
OM'u chosen field. 




FIVE-POINTS HOUSE OF INDUSTRY. 



(No. 155 Worth street.) 



The Five-Points ITonse of Industry originated in an indi- 
vidual effort made by Rev, Lewis Morris Pease, in the summer 
of 1850, to obtain employment for a class of wretched females, 
who, with strong desire to escape from an abandoned life, 
were debarred from any other, through lack of employment. 
Mr. Pease was at first employed by the Ladies' Home Mission- 
ary Society of the M. E. Church at the Five Points, but, differ- 
ing in his views from those of the society as to tlie methods 
to be employed, and some unfortunate complications occur- 
ring, an alienation was produced which >-esulted in the sever- 
ance of his connection with the society, aiid the establishment 
of an independent enterprise. In the autumn of the same 
year he hired two houses, admitted fifty or sixty inmates 
whom he supplied with work; in February an additional 



484 NEW YORK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS. 

room was added ; and in May, 1851, four houses were taken,, 
and the number of inmates increased to one hundred and 
twenty. In 1853 eight houses were taken, and five hundred 
persons supported either by their industry or the donations of 
the benevolent. Needle-work, basket-making, baking, straw- 
work, shoemaking, and ultimately farming, formed the chief 
employments. 

Mr. Pease began the enterprise with great courage, but 
with scanty means, and must have soon failed if Providence 
had not raised up friends who early came to his assistance. 
After conducting the enterprise over three years, he succeeded 
in enlisting a number of gentlemen, who procured a charter 
and assumed the management of the Institution, Mr. Pease 
remaining the superintendent. The entire expenditures of 
the enterprise during the three years and a quarter, closing 
with the incorporation of the society in March, 1854,. 
amounted to $48,981.87, more than half of which was profit 
on the work of the inmates, the remainder being made up by 
donations. 

Soon after the incorporation of the society, the trustees 
resolved to relinquish the rented buildings and erect perman- 
ent ones of their own. A plot of ground on what is now 
"Worth street was purchased, and in 1850 they completed a 
massive six-story brick edifice, with a front of fifty-four feet,, 
covering nearly the entire depth of the lots, and seventy feet 
high. Much of the means necessary to complete the edifice 
was contributed by friends, and the remaining incumbrance 
on the property was removed several years later by a bequest 
of $20,000, received from Mr. Sickles. In 1864, Chauncey 
Rose, Esq., whose generosity extended to so many institutions^, 
presented the board with the handsome sum of $10,000,. 
which led to the purchase of several adjoining lots. Here 
they erected a large two-story building, the ground floor, 
ninety by forty-five feet, being devoted to a play-room for the 
children, while the upper was divided by sliding partitions 
into appropriate school-rooms, and thrown on the Sabbath into 
a large chapel. After a few years it became manifest that 
the growing wants of tlie Institution demanded more am])le 
accommodations. The hospital department, confined to a 
single room, was far too small to accommodate the afflicted of 
the Institution and neighborhood. The chapel ceiling was- 
too low. More dormitories were needed, and a better nursery. 
An article setting forth these wants, published in the " Monthly 



FIVE-POINTS HOUSE OF INDUSTRY. 485 

Record," the oro;an of the Institution, brought pledges in a 
short time to the amount of $10,000, to which one of the 
trustees generously added another $10,000. 

Arrangement was also made with the City Mission and 
Tract Society, which loaned the House of Industry $20,000 
without interest, for the privilege of using the chapel. The 
trustees then decided to erect on the site of the school-rooms 
a new and commodious building. The edifice was begun iti 
August, 1869, completed and dedicated in February, 1870. 
The two buildings, though somewhat unlike in design, form 
an imposing pile about one hundred feet square. The stairs 
are fire-proof, the beams are of iron, water and gas are carried 
to every floor. The chapel, seventy by forty-five feet, is 
massively pillared, arched overhead, and has stained glass 
windows. The school-rooms afford accommodations for five 
hundred scholars, and the dormitories for over three hundred 
beds. The ground and buildings of the society have cost 
$125,000. 

The whole number received into the House during the six- 
teen years since its incorporation amounts to over nineteen 
thousand, and the names of twenty-one thousand children have 
in the same time been enrolled in the day school, with a 
daily attendance varying from two hundred and thirty to four 
hundred and twenty. During this period 4,135,218 meals 
have been furnished to the poor, and about nine thousand 
sent to situations. 




WPRKING WOMEN'S HOME, NO. 15 KI.IZAIiKTII .STREET. 

WOMAN'S BOARDINa-HOUSE. 

The trustees of the House of Industry, commiseratino: 
the fate of the many thonsand females in the city toiling 
by the day or week, with no relatives or homes, resolved, 
in 1867, to open a Workino; Women's Home, where this class 
might find clean, well-ventilated rooms, w^holesome food, and 
facilities for self-improvement, under Christian influence, at 
moderate expense. An immense building, No. 45 Elizabeth 
street, was accordingly purchased, refitted, and furnished, at 
an expense of $120,000. The building extends from Mott to 



-woman's BOABDING-nOUSE. 487 

Elizabeth streets, is fifty-six feet wide, two hundred feet 
deep, and six stories high, besides basement. It was dedicated 
September 26, 1867, and thrown open for boarders on the first 
day of the following month. The House at this writing has 
two hundred and sixty boarders, and has rooms for about one 
liundred more. Room-rent, gas, washing, use of parlor and 
bath-room, are furnished for the small sum of $1.25 per week. 
Meals are provided on the restaurant plan at such moderate 
rates, that the whole expense of living does not exceed three 
or four dollars per week. This Home has a separate superin- 
tendent, and is a distinct Institution, though managed by the 
same board of trustees. This eminently philanthropic move- 
ment has been very successful, though the largest expectations 
of the founders have not yet been fully realized. 

The entire expenditures of the Board from 1855 to 1870, 
including both Institutions, amounted to $600,000. ^ The or- 
ganization employs no travelling solicitor, but makes its appeal 
through the press, and depends upon the generosity of the pub- 
lic for the several thousand dollars necessary to defray its 
monthly expenses. The society, in 1857, commenced the is- 
sue of the " Monthly Record," which now has a circulation 
of 5,000 copies. It is sent to subscribers at $1.00 a year. 
Nearly all the shoes worn in the Institution and given away 
in the" neighborhood, amounting to fifteen or twenty hundred 
pairs every year, are received gratuitously at second hand, and 
iire repaired in tlieir own shop. At least ten thousand garments 
are given away annually. Boxes of clothing and provision 
are received from all parts of the country, and from some of 
the large hotels in the city liberal donations of provision are 
sent daily. Since the organization of the society there have 
been five superintendents successively employed — Messrs. 
Pease, Talcott, Barlow, Ilalliday, and Barnard. Upon this 
•ofiicer is laid a heavier burden than is usually borne by similar 
oflacials in other institutions, as to his discretion is committed 
the whole matter of admissions, dismissals, and the dispensing 
of outside charities. That these ofticers have been wise and 
«fiicient, the present prosperous condition of the Institution 
-attests. , 




fllE ULD KOOliEHY THAT OCCUi'lEL) THE 81TE OF I'lIK HOWAHl) MISSION. 
BLACK SEA OK SIN. 



HOWARD MISSION AND HOME FOR LITTLE WANDERERS, 

{No. 40 New Bowery. ) 

Some portions of the city of New York present as dismal 
moral deserts as can be found on tlie entire globe. A por- 
tion of the Fourtli Ward, with its narrow, crooked, filthy 
streets and dilapidated buildings, filled with a motley popula- 
tion collected from all countries, packed at the rate of 290,000 
to the square mile, has long been noted as one of the princi- 
pal " nests " for fever, cholera, and other deadly malaria on 
the island. But the moral aspect of this locality is even worse 
than the sanitary. Nearly every second d(wr 'is a rum-shop, 
dance-house, or sailors' lodging, where thieves and villains of 
both sexes and of every degree assemble, ]>resenting a concen- 
tration of all the most appalling vices of which fallen human- 



HOWARD MISSION AND HOME FOE LITTLE WANDEKER8. 489 

ity is capable. The following statement from the superin- 
tendent, Rev. Mr. Van Meter, will afford our readers a con- 
cise view of this most important work. 

" Rev. J. F. Richmond — Dear Brother : In compliance 
with your request I forward to you a brief statement by the 
Board, of our work and the way we do it : " 

This Mission was or<2;anized by the Rev. W. C. Van Meter, 
in May, 1861, and until 1864 was conducted by himself and 
an Advisory Committee ; when, at his request, it was regu- 
larly incorporated and placed under the control of well-known 
citizens, who constitute the Board of Managers, by whom its 
finances are administered, and all disbursements regulated 
under a system of strict accountability. 

From the heginning the funds have passed through the hands 
of a responsible Treasurer, by whom full reports of receipts 
and expenditures have been made each year, and published 
in the daily papers and in the " Little Wanderer's Friend." 

Object. — The announcement at the beginning remains un- 
changed : 

" Our object is to do all the good we can to the souls and 
bodies of all whom we can reach, and we cordially invite to 
an earnest co-operation with us all who love our Lord Oesus 
Christ in sincerity." 

Not Sectarian. — The Constitution requires that "not 
more than three members of the Board shall be chosen from 
the same denomination." 

The Field cannot be fully described, for New York has 
become the almshouse for the poor of all nations, and the 
Fourth Ward (in which the Mission is located) is the very 
concentration of all evil and the head-quarters of the most 
desperate and degraded representatives of many nations. It 
swarms with poor little helpless victims, who are born in sin 
and shame, nursed in misery, want, and woe, and carefully 
trained to all manner of degradation, vice, and crime. The 
jpacking of these poor creatures is incredible. In this Ward 
there are less than two dwelling houses for each low rum hole, 
gambling house and den of infamy. Near us on a small lot, 
but 150 by 240 feet, are twenty tenant houses. 111 families, 
5 stables, a soap and candle factory, and a tan-yard. On four 
blocks close to the Mission are 517 children, 318 Roman Catho- 
lic and 10 Protestant families, 35 rum-holes, and eighteen 
brothels. In No. 14 Baxter street, but three or four blocks 



4.90 



NEW YOKK AND ITS INSTITrXIONS. 



from us, are 92 families, consisting of 92 men, 81 women, 54 
boys and 53 girls. Of these 151 are Italians, 92 Iris^li, 25 
Chinese, 3 English, 2 Africans, 2 Jews, 1 German, and but 
,7 At/iericans. 




m 1 1 ,-, _„_ _^ 





nOWAliD MISSION (WHEN COMPLETED). 

Our Work is chiefly with the children. These are divided 
into three classes, consisting of 

1st. Those placed under our care to be sent to homes and 
%situations. 

2d. Those whom we are not authorized to send to homes, 
but who need a temporary shelter until their friends can pro- 
vide for them or surrender them to us. 

Note. — These two classes remain day and night in the 
Mission. 

^ 3d. Those who have homes or places in which to sleep. 
These enjoy the benelits of the wardrobe, dining and school 
rooms, hui do not sleep in the Mission. 

Food, fuel, and clothing are given to the poor, after a careful 
inspection of their condition. Mothers leave their small chil- 



HOWARD MISSION AND HOME FOR LITTLE WANDERERS. 491 

dren in the day nursery during the day, while they go out to 
Avork. The sick are visited, assisted, and comforted. Work is 
sought for the unemployed. We help the poor to help them- 
selves. 

The children over whom we can get legal control are 
placed in carefully selected Christian families, chiefly in the 
country, either for adoption or as membei-s of the families,. 
where they are tenderly cared for in sickness and in health — 
sent to Sunday School and Church — receive a good Common 
School education — trained to some useful business, trade or 
profession, and thus fitted for the great duties of mature life. 

Day and Sunday Schools. — The attendance, neatness,, 
order, cheerfulness enthusiasm, and rapid improvement in the 
Day and Sunday Schools are the best testimonials that our 
teachers can have of their fitness for their work. 

Conclusion. — Since the commencement of the Mission more 
than 10,000 children have been i-eceived into its Day and 
Sunday Schools, hundreds of whom have been placed in care- 
fully selected Christian homes. Many of them have grown uj) 
to usefulness and comfort, and some to positions of influence 
and importance. 

We know that our work prevents crime ; keeps hundreds 
of children out of the streets, keeps boys out of bar-rooms, 
gambling houses and prisons, and girls out of concert saloons, 
dance-houses, and other avenues that lead down to death ; 
and that it makes hundreds of cellar and attic homes more 
cleanly, more healthy, more happy, and less wretched, wicked, 
and hopeless. 1 

We never turn a homeless child from our door. From 
past experience we are warranted in saying that one dollar a 
week will keep a well-filled plate on our table for any little 
wanderer, and secure to it all the benefits of the Mission. 
Ten dollars will pay the average cost of placing a child in a 
good home." y Many apply at the Mission for a child. It is 
amusing to hear their inquiries and the replies of the superin- 
tendent. " Have you a nice little girl to send away into a 
good family?" said one of two well-dressed ladies, who 
entered the ofiice while we there in quest of information for 
this chapter. " No, we have not — yes, we have one," said the 
superintendent, "a dear little girl who is just recovering from 
measles, and who has been exposed to scarlet fever and will 
probably be sick with it by to-morrow. She needs some good,, 
kind mother to love her, and nurse her, and train her up. I 



492 NEW YORK AND ITS mSTITUTIONS. 

am afraid the angels will come for her soon, unless some of 
you mothers take her." They were not in search of such a 
child and turned toward the street. When a class of these 
children was taken West some years ago an old lady of wealth 
came to their lodgings and said, " If you have a crippled boy 

five him to me ; my dear boy died with the spinal complaint." 
'here was one little fellow in the group aiflicted with this 
spinal difficulty, and she took him to her nice home, procured 
the best medical skill in that part of the State, and after years 
of good treatment he recovered, and is now a successful man. 
In September, 1861, the "Little Wanderer's Friend," the 
organ of the Mission, a 16mo. now issued quarterly, was 
established. It contains the music sung in the Mission, the 
history of the Institution, and other selections and thought 
gems. It has now a circulation of five thousand copies. The 
Institution is conducted at an annual expense of from $35,000 
to $40,000, which is derived from voluntary contributions. 




THE MIDNIGHT MISSION. 

(No. 260 Greene street.) 

'HE Midnight Mission grew out of a conversation 
between the Rev. S. H. Hillyard, chaplain of St. 
Barnabas Mission, and Mr. Gustavus Stern, now a 
missionary, who had just arrived from England, where 
he had observed the operations of a mission among fallen 
women, established some ten years previous by Mr. Black- 
more, a Lieutenant in the Royal Navy. Mr. Hillyard had 
already given the subject some thought, and his mind being 
now more than ever awakened to its importance, he brought 
the matter before the St. Barnabas Missionary Association, 
at one of its regular meetings, rehearsed the account of the 
London movement, and read extracts from the biography of 
Lieutenant Blackmore. Two gentlemen of the Association 
volunteered their assistance in establishing a similar move- 
ment in New York, and the little band was soon strengthened 
by many additional members. A sermon by Dr. Peters, yield- 



TUE MIDNIGHT MISSION. 493 

ing a collection to the society, and a public meeting in tlie 
Sunday-school room of Trinity Chapel, in which Bishop 
Potter,' Drs. Dix, Tattle, Montgomery, and others gave the 
movement their cordial support, led the managers to hire 
rooms and at once open an Institution. Rooms were taken 
for three months at the corner of Twelfth street and Broad- 
w\ay. The plan of the society is to send out in the evening 
its members two and two upon tlie streets, with printed cards 
of invitation, which are given to young women supposed to 
belong to the suspicious class, and to such as seem inclined to 
hear some words of exhortation are added, and an appropri- 
ate tract given. In this way many are drawn into the mission 
building,\vliere they are kindly received by Christian ladies, 
offered refreshments, drawn out in conversation until ten or 
eleven o'clock, when a hymn is given out and sung, which is 
followed by an earnest exhortation and a prayer. At their first 
reception seventeen were drawn in, at the second ten, though 
the night was stormy, and at the third twenty-six. On the 
first of May, 1867, the society removed to a fine, three-story 
bi'ick house, No. 23 Amity street, which was rented at $2,500 
per annum. This building was capable of well accommo- 
dating eighteen or twenty lodgers besides the officers, and was 
generally filled, while scores sought admission in vain for 
want of room. In May, 1870, the Institution was again re- 
moved to a larger house, capable of accommodating thirty 
inmates. The trustees have recently purchased the large 
house. No. 260 Greene street, at a cost of $22,000. It is to be 
extensively improved and adapted to the use of forty-five or 
fifty inmates. All were taken at first who expressed a desire 
to reform, but preference is now given to the younger class. 
Work is furnished the inmates, and half the earnings of each 
given for her own use. 

During the four years, 592 have been received into the In- 
stitution. Of the 202 sheltered during the last year, 28 were 
sent to other institutions, 47 placed in good situations, 15 were 
returned to friends, and 49 returned to a life of sin. About 
fifty encouraging letters were received during 1869, from 
those who had been placed in situations. The managers have 
sometimes been deceived by these artful creatures, whose 
ways are so " movable " that they succeed in deceiving the 
very elect. But with all the discouragements naturally at- 
tending an enterprise of this kind, the society has held stead- 
ilv on its way and gives promise of great usefulness. 




WILSON'S INDUSTRIAL SCHOOL FOR GIRLS. 

( Corner of Avenue A and St. Clark's place. ) * 

The first industrial school established in this country was 
commenced some time in the year 1S53. Its chief founder 
was Mrs. Wilson, wife of Eev. James P. Wilson, of the Pres- 
bytei-ian church, who became its first directress, and served the 
society with great efficiency until her removal f i-om the city, 
in consequence of lier husband's accepting; a call to serve a 
cliurch in an adjoining State. The school began in a hired 
room in an npjjer story on Avenue D, between Eighth and 
Ninth streets. On May 13th, 1854, the Legislature passed the 
act incorporating the society as " AVilson's Industrial School 
for Girls," in honor of her who had been chiefly instrumental 
in its establishment. 

In May, 1855, the society entered the previously purchased 
building,"^ Xo. 137 Avenue A, Mrs. Wilson generously con- 
tributing $1,000 in securing the property. 

It has never been the purpose of the society to rival or 
supplant our excellent Public School system, but to go into 
the lanes and streets, to gather in and benefit a class too poor 



^V^LBON S IN'DUSTRIAL KCnOOL FOR GIRL:=;. 495 

and filthy to enter the Ward schools. The children gathered 
jiere were for the most part barefooted, ragged street children, 
obliged to beg their daily bread, and so degraded in appear- 
ance and morals that if many of them were admitted into a 
Public School another class would be soon withdrawn to 
avoid tJie nnpleasant contact. Here they were allowed to en- 
ter at all honrs, in consequence of their vagrant habits, though 
punctuality was much enconraged — a rule that could not be iol- 
erated in the Public Schools without destroying all classifica- 
tion and ordei-. None have been admitted unless too poor to 
attend anywhere else ; and as soon as their circumstances have 
sufiiciently improved, they have been promptly transferred to 
the Public Schools. 

Tlie efforts of these Christian ladies, in going to the very 
lowest sinks of society, seeking with all the sanctified arts of 
kindness and culture to collect and polish these discolored 
fragments of our degraded humanity, are worthy of more 
than humaii commendation. The children are sought out bv 
a visitor, and induced to attend the school. The exercises 
are opened in the morning with brief religious exercises ; after 
this they go to their books foi- two hours, after which general 
exercises and singing are continued until dinner. AH are 
furnished with a simple but good dinner consisting of beef, 
vegetable soup, boiled hominy and molasses, codfish, bean 
soup, an ample supply of good bread, which the economical ma- 
tron manages to supply at the rate of three cents per child. A 
half-hour is given for play, after which they return to their 
rooms and are instructed for two hours in sewing and other 
handicraft. Attendance and good behavior are rewarded 
with tickets, which a prompt girl is able to accumulate to an 
amount representing ten cents per week. These are redeemed 
with new clothes, which she is allowed to make and carry 
home. All industrious girls earn some wages, and some Avho 
have become experts receive large pay. Custom work is 
taken in and prepared with great skill. A dress-making class, 
was early formed, with a capable woman instructor. In 1855 
a department was organized to instruct them in general house- 
work, and in 1866 a class for fine sewing, embroidery, etc. 
In 1854 they organized a Sabbath school, which has at pres- 
ent an averaj^e attendance of three hundred and twenty -five 
scholars. Like most mission schools, the managers have 
found it diflicult to secure plenty of good tcaclt'iv. If some 
of the many Christian people in our large churc""'-, corroding 



496 NEW YORK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS. 

for want of something to do, wonld go to their relief, it 
would be a blessing to all concerned. 

A Bible-reader began her work in April, 1863, and out of 
this lias grown a weekly " mothers' meeting." A weekly- 
temperance meetii\^, and a prayer meeting, are regnlarly 
lield. The labors of a missionary were secnred in 1866, and 
the services immediately crowned with the conversion of sin- 
ners. These converts were advised to attach themselves to 
the neighboring churches, but as they had never been any- 
where else to service, they felt a reluctance, and refused to go. 
This made necessary the forming of an organization of their 
own, which was effected in June, 1869, with a membership of 
thirty-three, since increased to sixty-one. The organization 
is evangelical, l)ut not denominational; clergymen of several 
denominations have been invited to administer the sacraments. 
During the first eleven j^ears no legacy was received, and but 
two donations from the city authorities. The late Chauncey 
Rose, at a later period, remembered the Institution with 
$20,000, and others have since turned a portion of their bene- 
factions in this direction. In the spring of 1869, tlie society 
purchased a fine four-story brick building, fifty by ninety feet, 
on the corner of Avenue A and St. Mark's place, at a cost of 
$84,000. A debt of $14,000 still remains on the property, 
which the generous public have been invited to assist in re- 
moving. A vacant lot adjoining the building was included in 
the purchase for the erection of a chapel. Two floors of the 
building did not come into the possession of the society until 
May, 1871, since which the building has afforded the very 
best accommodations for a large school, and brought a small 
income. 

The present matron has presided over the Institution with 
great acceptability fifteen years. 




NEW YORK HOUSE AND SCHOOL OF INDUSTRY. 

(No. 120 West Sixteenth street. ) 

lilE society that established this industrial enterpi-ise 
was duly incorporated by act of Legislature in 1851, 
W"ir^ with the design of furnishing employment in needle- 
work to infirm and destitute females at such a rate of 
remuneration as should afford them a livelihood. It is not de- 
signed to encourage supineness and beggary, but the principle 
of self-help and self-respect. It generously proposes to help 
those who are willing to help themselves, and those first and 
only who are destitute of employment. It never employs 
those to whom other avenues of industry are open, and it 
never turns away a needy, industrious widow if it can be pre- 
vented. Its organization, which is vested with power of self- 
perpetuation, consists of a board of about fifty Christian 
ladies, with an advisory committee of gentlemen to assist them 
in managing their finances. The House, which is situated at 
Iso. 120 West Sixteenth street, is a wooden structure, with a 
rear building fitted up for an industrial school, and cost about 
$16,000. The society purchases goods, and makes market- 
able garments, and sells them in its own store, drawing in the 
meantime all the custom work its managers are able to 
secure. Three general committees have the principal man- 
agement of the business : 1. The Purchasing, which selects 
and procures all the fabrics ; 2. The Cutting, whicli prepares 
the work for the seamstresses ; and, 3. The Appraising, which 
attaches a card to each garment, stating the price that will be 
paid for making, and when made, the price at which it may 
be sold. 

Besides these three committees which are formed from the 
directresses, there are several from the managers, viz., a 
Visiting, a Distributing, a Registering, a Paying, and one on 
Ordered Work, 

Work is given to needy women from every part of the city, 
and unlike most other establishments, this society gives em- 
ployments through all seasons of the year. It furnishes two 
kinds of work : 



49S NEW YOEK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS. 

I. FINE ORDERED WORK. 

Those only who excel in needle-work find employment in 
this department. Bridal outfits, embroidery, braiding, knit- 
ting, quilting, and other choice and difiicult tasks are pro- 
duced with astonishing proficiency, and compare favorably 
with the best imported specimens in this line. Some of these 
undertakings require, in order to their successful completion, 
as much talent and effort as is required to enter one of the 
learned professions, and the society has found it difficult to 
secure the services of a sufficient number of this class to be 
able to fill all orders' of this kind with despatch. 

II. HOUSE-WORK. 

This includes all ordinary sev/ing for household- use, gar- 
ments for both sexes and of every description. Large orders 
are taken from some of the missions and promptly filled. Here 
the miserably poor, whose hands have been so harde led as to 
incapacitate them for neat sewing, find employment. 

Several years ago, a class was formed from these adults by 
the managers, to teach them to become "expert seamstresses; 
but after much effort it was found impossible to much im- 
prove them, atid so the undertaking was relinquished. 

During 1870, 258 women were employed, and $10,165 paid 
for such service. Receipts from sales of garments during the 
same time amounted to $8,873.70, and. from ordered work, 
$4,710.69. The society has all the appliances for doing 
three times the amount of work, but fails to dispose of its 
stock, owhig largely, we think, to the fact that its House is 
situated in a poor business locality, and with no adequate 
scheme for wholesaling. 

The society has an invested fund of about $18,000, besides 
its real estate. 

There is a sewing-school also connected with the House, 
where one hundred and tliirty girls were instructed in 1870. 
Spiritual instruction is blended with manual. Portiots of 
Scripture and hymns are orally taught, and a good library 
has been provided. Three hours on Wednesday, and three on 
Saturday, they are instructed in needle-work. Each is en- 
couraged to finish a garment, which becomes her own.^ An 
annual exhibition is held in January, when their work is ex- 
aminedj and each girl receives the garment she has made. 



THE children's AH) SOCIETY 499 

]\[any of the girls wlio were Iiere a few years ago are now 
filling fine situations, and the religious instructions inculca'.ed 
at the House have resulted in their conversion. The hall in 
the rear building is hired for an Episcopal Sunday school, 
which has led some to erroneously suppose that the Ilouse 
was denominational. The society is not limited in its opera- 
tions by creed or nationality. 

An infant industrial school has also been established, which 
is open daily to small children of both sexes. The supervis- 
ion of this is committed to Mr, Brace of the " Children's Aid 
Society." About fifty children attend, mostly from crowded 
tenement-houses. A comfortable dinner is provided for them, 
and it is hoped that, by thus surrounding them for a few 
]jours eacli day with elevating influences, they will be stimu- 
lated to self-help and self-respect. 

The managers have made arrangements so that those 
formerly in its empl(\y, l)ut wliose age or misfortune now in- 
capacitates them for toil, receive a small annuity. A Bible- 
class and a Mothers' Social and Religions Meeting are held 
oueday each week in the school-room. TJie women asseml^le, 
and while engaged with their needles, the Bible is read, ex- 
pounded, and its claims nrged npon them. The benevolent 
ladies who projected this Institution, and have nobly sustained 
it during twenty years, often amid difficulties that have 
caused them nights of sleepless anxietj'-, have performed a 
noble work that will never be forgotten. They have raised 
the fallen, cheered the faint, and covered the naked with 
a garment. They have cari-ied bread to the homes of the 
famishing and the fatherless, and many times assuaged the 
sorrows of her wlio was ready to nerish. 



THE CHILDREN'S AID SOCIETY. 

{Office No. 19 East Fourth street.) 

MONG the numerous organizations established 
during the last half century for the improvement of 
society, few have been more energetic or successful 
than the Children's Aid Society, formed in February, 
1853. The prime mover in this association at its oi-ganiza- 
tion. and down through the eighteen years of its wondrous 




500 NEW YOEK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS. 

career, has been Mr. Charles Loriug Brace, the present seci'c- 
tary of the society. While pursuing a theological course in 
New York city, he gave much labor to various institutions, 
seeking the recovery of neglected vagrant and delinquent 
children, and to the prisons where mature criminals were 
confined. A trip to England and other parts of Europe, 
where he carefully examined the institutions, and the meas- 
ures formed for the reformation of the fallen, led to the 
conclusion that the chief evils of society resulted from the 
neglects of childhood, and that the largest efforts of the phi- 
lanthropist should be bent in this direction. Some time after 
his return he drew together a number of intelligent and 
benevolent gentlemen who had already manifested an interest 
in this subject, and organized this society, the object being 
to " improve the condition of the poor and destitute children 
of the city of New York." One outside of this city would 
be surprised to know how large a number of little orphans 
and half-orphans, children cast out from their homes, or who 
have drifted here by the tide of emigration, or have run away 
from their parents in the surrounding country, and the off- 
spring of dissolute parents, are here living vagabond lives, 
subsisting as best they can, sleeping in boxes, under stair- 
ways, and in the lobbies of the printing offices. 

These are at first the newsboys, boot-blacks, pedlers, errand- 
boys, petty thieves, but become at a later period the pick- 
pockets, gamblers, street loafers, burglars, and prostitutes. 
There are always probabl}^ ten thousand of this class floating 
around the city, a few of whom try to be honest and industri- 
ous, but many more live entirely by their wit and skill. The 
society during the eighteen years of its operations has ex- 
pended, aside from its purchases of real estate, about $94:0,000. 
It has devised and opened a system of lodging-houses for the 
boys, and also for homeless girls, and has at present tM'enty- 
two industrial schools, scattered through the various parts of 
the city, for poor and neglected girls. The homeless, after 
some instruction, are taken to the AYest, if they can be in- 
duced to go, where good situations are provided. The ex- 
periment of opening a lodging-house for newsboys and boot- 
blacks was so novel, that scarcely any could be found to 
encourage the measure, and much search was required to 
find a building that could be hired for such use. At length 
the loft of the Sun Building was secured, and after spending 
a thousand dollars in furnishing it, the boys were invited to 



THE CniLDKEN's AID SOCIETY. 501 

come in. The first niglit, March 18, 1854, the room was 
crowded with these wild, rao-ged roughs, many of whom were 
hatless, bootless, indescribably filthy, and covered with rer ■ 
miu, a large part of them unable to read or write, and some of 
whom did not know their nationality or names. A man of 
admirable tact and fitness, Mr. C. C. Tracy, had been provi- 
dentially secured to take charge of this branch of the enter- 
prise, lie addressed the boys kindly, and informed them 
that they were not objects of charity, but were to be con- 
sidered lodgers in their own hotel, paying six cents each for 
his bed, the rules of the house being that they should kee]> 
order among themselves, and use the bath. They cheered 
him lustily, and one of the largest boys soon stepped forward 
and paid for a week's lodging in advance. There was much 
" larking " and mischief manifested, requiring great patience 
and wisdom on the part of the superintendent, but with ad- 
mirable adroitness he soon introduced the Lord's Prayer, which 
they were induced to repeat, the evening school followed, 
and finally the full religious service. Many of these boys 
were found to be earning several dollars per day selling 
papers, and none of them less than from fifty to seventy -five 
cents, all of which they squandered on theatres, cards, dice, lot- 
tery-tickets, and costly meals in the saloons. To correct these 
habits, he introduced checkers, backgammon, and other games 
to keep them from the streets, and contrived what has been a 
blessing to thousands, the Newsboys' Savings Bank. A table, 
with a drawer divided into small compartments, with a slit 
in the surface over each through which the boys could slip 
their pennies, was prepared, and each box numbered for a de- 
positor. As any undue authority would have sent them fly- 
ing to their original Arab life, he called them together and 
explained the object of the bank, to induce them to save their 
money, and called for a vote as to how long it should be kept 
locked. They voted for two months. Having obtained a 
majority vote for a good measure, they were always held 
strictly to their own law, however deeply they might repent 
afterwards. The amount saved by some in that time aston- 
ished all of them, the value of property was impressed on 
their minds, some took their accumulations to the city Savings 
Banks, and others purchased good clothes. This invention did 
more to destroy their gambling and extravagant tendencies 
than everything else. A plan for lending penniless boys 
money to begin business of some kind was introduced. 



502 NEW YORK AND ITS mSTITUTIONS. 

Sums varying from live to fifty cents were loaned, generally 
returned the same day, often the same hour, and did much 
to encourage industry and thrift. 

Thus the work of reformation advanced ; they became more 
tidy, industrious, studious, regular in their habits, and serious 
at divine service. Ministers and'other speakers were invited 
t(^ address them. One has well said, " There is something un- 
speakably solemn and affecting in the crowded and attentive 
meeting of these boys, and the thought that you speak for a 
few minutes on the high themes of eternity to a young 
audience, who, to-morrow, will be battling with misery, temp- 
tation, and sin, in every shape and form, and to whom your 
words may be the last they ever hear of friendly sympathy or 
warning." The seed has sometimes sprung up suddenly, and 
ia other instances after many days. At one service a boy 
addicted to thie\ing was so impressed that at its close he 
called the superintendent aside, confessed his crimes, gave 
up a dark lantern, a wrench, a pistol, and has since filled a 
good place as an excellent boy. No story of misfortune has 
ever been presented to the boys without eliciting a generous 
response and material aid. They contributed to the '• Mount 
Vernon Fund," to the Kansas sufferers, to the Sanitary Com- 
mission, and to the relief of sufferers from great fires in the 
city. Thousands have gone to the country, scarcely any of 
whom have turned out drunkards, some of them have entered 
the ministry and the learned professions, and many of them 
have accumulated property. Many of them .re singularly 
talented ; and, being early schooled to tact and self-reliance, 
they almost invariably succeed in any undertaking. The 
ucwsbo\-3 and .bout-blacks of New York are a new crop each 
year, ragged and ignorant as their predecessors. So the toil of 
this society continues from year to year. The society has five 
lodging-houses at present, the one at No. 49 Park place being 
the largest, having accommodations for two hundred and fifty. 
A fund of $70,000 has been provided to build or purchase a 
building in that ward. Three of the trustees have recently 
purchased the building occupied in the Sixteenth ward. It 
i.i a four-story brick in Eighteenth street, near Seventh 
avenue, has accommodations for a hundred' boys, and cost 
GM:,000. The same fruit has not attende'! the lodging- 
liouse system among the girls, yet it has been a necessity 
and a success. The edifice No. 27 Saint Mark's place has 
l)een purchased for a Girl's lodging-house, at an expense of 



THE children's aed society. 503 

$22,500. The lodging-houses are supplied with reading- 
I'oorns, evening schools, music, and meals. The twenty-two 
industrial schools for poor girls are located in the different 
sections of the city where the class for which they were insti- 
tuted are most numerous. These children and half-grown 
girls are sought out by visitors a]ipointed by the managers. 
They are such as do not attend the ward schools, wild, 
ragged, apparently untamable, many of them growing u]) 
within a few blocks of Union square and other fashionable 
centers, living in cellars, garrets, or miserable shanties, with- 
out any of the advantages of school or church. They are when 
found filthy, indolent, quarrelsome, and profoundly ignorant 
of everything. They cannot close a rent in a garment, or 
attend to any household duty. In these schools they are 
tauglit, besides other species of handicraft, the use of the 
sewing-machine, which invariably secures them a good situa- 
tion. Beside the paid teachers, many ladies of culture vol- 
unteer to assist in conductino- these schools. During the last 
nine months, 7,000 different children have been under instruc- 
tion in these industrial schools, 13,000 have found quarters in 
the lodging-houses, and 2,298 have been placed in homes, 
mainly in the West, The managers express deep gratitude 
that no railroad accident has ever occurred while conducting 
the more than eighteen thousand children to their new 
homes in various parts of the country. The children are not 
legally bound out, so but that if they prove truant, or their 
employers play the tyrant, the connection may be at any 
time dissolved. No one noi; engaged in this work can 
appreciate the magnitude of the e^dl this society is toiling to 
prevent, or the good it is yearly accomplishing. Notwith- 
standing the increase of population, the sentences to the city 
prisons, for such offences as children usually commit, are less 
than formerly. We find the total for vagrancy for 1869 
"only about half what it was in 1862—2,071 as against 4,299, 
and the females only numbered 785 against 3,172 in 1862 ; 
the total of this year, 64:Q less than in the year previous. In 
petit larceny, the total was only increased from 2,779 to 3,327 
in seven years, though population has probably increased thirty- 
five pel- cent, in that time, and among females it has risen 
only from 880 in 1862, to 989 in 1869 ; while the total is 836 
less than last year. 

" The commitments of boys under 15 years are less than 
four yeai-3 a^^o— 1,872 in 1862 against 1,934 in 1865, and of 



504 NEW TOEK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS. 

girls between 15 and '20, less than they were seven years ago 
— 1,927 agamst 2,081 ; and of those under 15, less, being 
325 in 1869 against 372 in 1802 ; the total commitments in 
1869, as against 1862, are 46,476 to 41,449 ; in 1868 they 
were 47,313. 

"The arrests for vagrancy are 2,449 against 3,961 in 1862; 
for picking pockets, 303 ao;ainst 466 ; for petit larceny, 4,927 
against 3,946, and against 5,260 in 1865, and 5,269 in 1867. 

" The arrests of minors are less than they were in 1867^ 
and but little greater than in 1863, 12,075 against 11,357 ; 
and those of female minors have fallen off, in seven vears, 
2,397 against 2,885 in 1862 to 3,132 in 1863— the ^ total 
amonnt'of all ages is 78,451 in 1869 against 84,072 in 1863, 
and 71,130 in 1862. 

" The marked changes which everywhere occur in criminal 
records of our city, in the arrest and punishment of girls, is 
especiallv due, we believe, to the agency of ' Industrial 
Schools.''" 




SOCIETY FOR THE EMPLOY]yiENT AND RELIEF OF POOR 
WOMEN. 

w 

\VENTY-SIX years ago, under the influence of the 
Rev. Orville Dewey, I).D., pastor of the church of 
the Messiah, this society was organized, and has the 
honor of being the first of its kind in New Tork. 
The object of the society is to prevent, in a measure, the pau- 
perism which forms so painful a feature in the community ; 
to supersede the daily almsgiving, which, instead of benefit- 
ing, only tends to deepen the degradation of this class by de- 
priving "them of a healthful self-dependence ; to elevate them 
to the rank of independent laborers, and insure them a fair 
compensation for their toil. The annual payment of three 
dollars at first made a person a member of the society, but in 
1847 the sum was changed to five dollars, and in 1865 to 
eight dollars. The management is committed to a President, 
a Vice-President, a Secretary, a Treasurer, and twelve mana- 
gers, all of whom are ladies. Each subscriber is allowed to 
send one applicant to the directors, but is held responsible 



ASSOCIATION FOR IMPKOVIXG THE COISTDITION OF POOK. 505 

for any delinquencies in the person thns sent. Goods are 
purchased, manufactured into garments, and disposed of in 
the store kept by the society, and in such other ways as the 
managers shall direct. During 1869 work was given weekly 
to ninety-six women, and three thousand two hundred and 
sixty-one garments were manufactured. The society has ex- 
perienced some difficulty in disposing of its goods, the sales 
of the year amounting to but little over $3,000. The report 
of 1870 shows a small decrease on the previous year. Other 
societies in the city have grown up from the example fur- 
nished by this, and now control many times its amount of 
labor and capital. The society owns no building and oper- 
ates with a small capital. 

The managers have recently proposed to open a Mission 
House for missionary work among women and girls. They 
propose to keep the girls through the day, providing dinner, 
giving them instruction in useiul studies during the morn- 
ing hours, devoting the afternoon to needle-work in all 
branches. Every girl in turn to take part in the housework 
under the direction of a competent matron. They thus hope 
ill time to establish a seamstress, a dressmaking, and a wash- 
ing department, each of which sliall be self-supporting. The 
new building to contain rooms to be used on Sabbath for 
Bible classes and Sunday scliool, and on week evenings for 
reading-room, lectures, music, and other entertainments and 
instruction suited to the wants of the pupils. The society is 
w^holly controlled by the Unitarians. 



THE NEW YORK ASSOCLA.TION FOR niPROVIXG THE CON- 
DITION OF THE POOR 

( Office ill Bible House.) 

iW YORK, like every other great and populous city, 

-J^^ is largely overrun with an army of beggars of both 

^ivf ^^^^% representing all ages and nationalities. Some of 

*^' these are wealthy misers, retailing pretended sorrows to 

increase their gains, others meanly beg to avoid industry, a large 

number are improvident, and some hitherto industrious and 



506 NEW YORK AND ITS TKSTITUTIONS. 

successful are so reduced, in times of general embarrassment, 
that begging becomes a necessity. Many of this latter class, 
finding themselves thus sadly in decline, become demoralized, 
and sink dov.m to the slum of common pauperism. It is 
hardly a virtue to give indiscriminately to all that ask, 
because dissipation, idleness, and needless vagrancy, would 
be thus gi'catly increased. All have not the time to inquire 
into the character and condition of applicants, hence the 
necessity of a carefully organized association, to whom the 
worthy poor may successfully apply. 

In 1843 this Association was formed, and in 1848 it was 
duly incorporated. The wonderful increase of foreign pau- 
pers had greatly swelled the army of straggling mendicants. 
To meet the demands, more than thirty almsgiving societies 
had been formed, many of which gave far too indiscrimi- 
nately ; all acted independently, thus furnishing an opportu- 
nity for artful mendicants to draw at the same time from 
several societies without detection. This society did not de- 
sign to supersede any other, but simply to supply what in 
others was manifestly lacking. But so wise and comprehen- 
sive was its plan, that in a short time most of the others dis- 
banded, leaving a far greater burden for it to carry than it 
had originally anticipated. The Association divided the city 
into twenty-two districts, which nre again subdivided into 
sections, so small that the visitor residing in each could call 
at the house of every applicant. No supplies are given save 
through the \asitor. The Association gives no money, and 
only such articles of food and clothing, in small quantities, as 
ai-e least liable to abuse, giving always coarser supplies than 
industry will procure. The design of the Association is not 
the mere temporary relief, but the elevation of the moral and 
physical condition of the indigent ; hence, temporary relief is 
resorted to when compatible with its general design. It re- 
quires every beneficiary to abstain from intoxicating drinks, 
to send young children to school, to apprentice children of 
suitable age, thus making the poor a party to their own im- 
provement. During the twenty-seven years of its operations, 
the Association has relieved over one hundred and eight} thou- 
sand families, varying from five to fifteen thousand per an- 
num, amounting to at least 765,000 individuals. Its disburse- 
ments down to October, 1870, amounted to $1,203,767.53. 

The labors of the Association for the elevation of the indi- 
gent and the suppression of unnecessary pauperism, have 



ASSOCIATION FOK niPIlOVIN(r THE CONDITION OF POOK. 507 

been crowned with the most graiii'jing results. Its last 
annual report states that the average number of families re- 
lieved for the ten years ending with 1860 was 8,632, in a pop- 
ulation' averaging about 625,000 souls ; while in the decade 
closing with 18^70, with a population of over 900,000, but 
6,131 families had been tlie annual average number relie^ed. 
These figures show that during the first decade named there 
■was an absolute gain in the pecuniary independence of the 
masses previously relieved of seventy-one per cent., and 
during the ten years closing with 1870 an additional 'ww- 
^Yoyemaut oi Jifty-four per cent., or the substantial gain of 
one hundred and twenty-five per cent, during the last Wentv 
years. 

It will thus be seen that the amount of relief afforded by 
the sums of money expended give but an imperfect estimate 
of the service rendered by this Association to the cause of 
humanity. Always managed by wise, philanthropic minds, 
it has ever been first to discover the source of public evil, and 
prompt to suggest and apply tlie true remedy. Indeed, to this 
Association more than to any other are we indebted for the 
successful inauguration of more than a score of our most excel- 
lent charities. Besides furnishing the public with volumes of 
statistics, accumulated with great expense, in relation to our 
population, the causes and remedies of poverty, the unhealthy 
condition of our dwellings, aud many other things which 
have led to great reforms, it has waged unceasing war with 
the public nuisances of the city, its lotteries, Sabbath desecra- 
tion, gambling dens, intemperance, and many other evils. In 
18-16 a system for the gratuitous supply of medical aid, to 
the- indigent sick in portions of the city not reached by exist- 
ing Dispensaries, was organized. This led to the founding 
of the I)emilt Dispensary in 1851, and the North-western 
Dispensary in 1852. In 1851 it projected the Xew York 
Juvenile Asylum. 

A Public Washing and Bathing Establishment was estab- 
lished in 1852, at an expense of $12,000, and the following 
year the Association procured an act to provide for the care 
and instruction of Idle Truant Children. 

In 1854 the Children's Aid Society was formed by the de- 
nuinds of a public sentiment which this Association had • 
largely created. The Workingmen's Home was erected in 
1855, by the direction cf the Association, at an expense of 
$00,000. During the Avar it held steadily on its Avay, and 



508 NEW YORK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS. 

accomplished a vast amount of good in more ways tlian we 
have space to enumerate. We mention in honor of this 
society — last, but not least — in 1863 it organized the society 
for the Relief of the Ruptured and Crippled, which ranks to- 
day among the noblest charities of New York. 

The Honorable Robert M. Hartley has been the indefati- 
gable corresponding secretary and agent of the society 
since its formation, and to the patient thinking and incessant 
toil of this gentleman is the public indebted tor much of the 
good accomplished by this and by several other societies. 
vVe cheerfully acknowledge our obhgation to the secretary 
and his associate, Mr. Savage, for various items of informa- 
tion embodied in this work. 




THE YOUNG SIEN'S CHEISTIAN ASSOCIATION OF NEW YORK 

( Cmnier of Fourth avenue and Twenty -third street. ) 



I HE Young Men's Christian Associations are soci- 
eties which have for their object the formation of 
Christian character and the development of Christian 
activity in young men. The first Association was or- 
ganized in London on the sixth of June, 1844, and on the 
ninth of December, 1851, the first on this continent was 
formed at Montreal. The Boston Association established 
December 29, 1851, was the first in the United States, and 
the following years organizations sprang up in Washington, 
Buffalo, New York, the latter organized June 30, 1852. For 
several years little correspondence existed between the dif- 
ferent Associations; but in 1854 the plan of holding an 
Annual Convention for the mutual interchange of thought, 
the gathering of statistical and other information, was intro- 
duced. This Convention, held in Buffalo, recommended to the 
Associations the formation of a voluntary confederation for 
mutual encouragement, having two agencies for carrying on 
its work, viz. : An Annual Convention and a Central Com- 
mittee, the functions of these being only advisory or recom- 




a ! 




'i' III 



YOUNG men's christian ASSOCIATION OF NEW TOEK. 500 

mendatory. Sixteen of these National Conventions have 
now been held, many of which have been large and impress- 
ive. The Association organized and conducted, during the 
late war, the Christian Commission, whose toils and useful- 
ness cannot be too highly commended. There are now in 
the United States seven hundred and seventy-six associations 
and sixty-two in the British Provinces, with a membership of 
over one hundred thousand. Twelve of these have already 
erected or purchased buildings of their own, and twenty-one 
more at least are collecting funds to do so. The Association 
in New York city was the tliird organized in America, and has 
a membership at present of over six thousand. The headquar- 
tei"sof the Association were for several years at No. 161 Fiftli 
avenue ; and to reach the masses of young men in the various 
wards of the city, four branches have been formed, one of 
which is at Harlem, one at No. 285 Hudson street, one at 
No. 473 Grand street, and one for colored men at No. 97 
Wooster street. Each branch is supplied with a library free 
to all the members, witli a reading-room supplied with the 
principal magazines and papers or the city, and with occa- 
sional lectures from distinguished men. The Association 
appoints several committees to which the principal labor is 
committed. It has a committee on Invitation, on Member- 
ship, on Employment, on Boarding-houses, on Visitation of 
the Sick, on Devotional Meetings, on Choral Society, on 
Literary Society, and one on Churches. Toung and middle- 
aged men from all evangelical denominations unite, forget- 
ting denominational distinctions, and do annually a vast 
amo.unt of good. Hundreds of young men loitering in the 
streets are picked up and saved from dens of dissipation and 
crime. Strangers are recommended to suitable boarding- 
houses, introduced to members of churches in their neigh- 
borliood, and many furnished with good situations in busi- 
ness. For several years the Association contemplated the 
erection of a suitable building, which, in addition to its ample 
accommodations, would furnish an income, so greatly needed 
in the prosecution of its work. An act of incorporation passed 
the Legislature April 3, 1866, granting power to hold real 
or pei-sonal estate for the uses of the corporation, whose 
annual rental value should not exceed $50,000. A plot of 
land on the south-west corner of Twenty-third street and 
T ourth avenue was purchased, at a cost of $142,000. On the 
13th of .Tanuar}', 1868, ground was broken, and on De- 
29 



510 NEW YOKE AND ITS mSTITUTIONS. 

cember 2d, 1869, the buildiiifij was dedicated, Drs. Dewitt, 
Tyng, Adams, Kendricks, Thompson, Ridgaway, Messrs. 
Dodge, Randolph, General Howard, Governor Hoffman, and 
Vice-President Colfax taking part in the exercises. 

The edifice, whicli is very attractive, is five stories high, with 
a front of eighty-six feet nine inches on Fourth avenue and 
one hundred and seventy-five feet on Twenty-third street. 
Immense blocks of granite form the base of the walls, and as 
they ascend Ohio free and New Jersey brown stone, with their 
varying colors, are agreeably interspersed with an occasional 
A^ermiculated block. The windows, in a variety of forms, ex- 
hibit the beauty and strength of the arch-line, and the polished 
archivolts are richly ornamented with carved voussoirs. The 
central door is marked by rich columns and surmounted by 
the arms of the Association. 

The roof is crowned with a superb central and three angu- 
lar towers. The ground floor is rented for stores. Entering 
on Twenty-third street, ascending a flight of stairs, you pass 
to the right into the grand hall, capable of seating one 
tliousand five hundred persons, so perfectly ventilated that 
a crowded audience departs, at the close of a lecture, leav- 
ing the air as pure as it found it. The hall is furnished with 
a Chickering piano-forte and a pipe organ, which cost $10,000, 
both of which were purchased with the proceeds of a concert 
held in the hall on the evening of the 1st of December, 1869. 
To the left of the staircase is a pleasant reception-room, from 
which is an entrance into the secretary's room, the large 
reading-room, to three committee-rooms, to a wash-room, 
a bath-room, to a gymnasium, and after descending two 
flights of stairs to a bowling-alley. Upon the next floor is 
the library, capable of containing twenty thousand volumes, 
a small lecture-room, with seating for four hundred persons, 
four smaller rooms for evening classes in penmanship, draw- 
ing, book-keeping, the sciences, and the languages. The 
upper stories are rented to artists and others. 

The edifice cost, exclusive of the site, $345,000, on which 
there remains a debt of $150,000, which the managers hope 
to remove with the rent of the stores. Such an embodiment 
of modern Christianity is rarely seen in one building; The 
noble edifice presents the study of architecture, the first floor 
exhibits the activities of business, while farther up are found 
painting, music, eloquence, conversation, reading, study, rec- 
reation, and worship — all that can attract, expand, and ennoble 
the soul. 




THE PRISON ASSOCIATION OF NEW YORK. 
{Bible House.) 

'JIE Prison Association of New York was organized 
on the evening of the 6th of December, 1844. The 
objects of this Association, as set forth in its constitu- 
tion, are: 1. A humane attention to persons arrested 
and held for examination or tried, inchiding inquiry into the 
circumstances of their arrest, and the crimes charged against 
them ; securing to tlie friendless an impartial trial and protec- 
tion from the depredations of unprincipled persons, whether 
professional sharpei-s or fellow prisoners, 2. Encourage- 
ment and aid to discharged convicts in their efforts to re- 
form and earn an honest living. This is done bj assisting 
them to situations, providing them tools, and otherwise coun- 
seling and helping them to business. 3. To study the 
(]|uestion of prison discipline generally, the government of 
btate, county, and city prisons, to obtain statistics of crime, 
disseminate information on this subject, to evolve the true 
principles of science, and impress a more reformatory charac- 
ter on our penitentiary system. The Association was duly 
incorporated, with large power for the examination of all 
prisons and jails in the State, during the second year of its 
operations, and required to report annually to the Legislature. 
A female department was organized the first year (The Isaac 
T. Hopper Home), which soon became an independent society, 
abundant in labor and rich in results. Its history and work- 
ing are elsewhere traced in this work. 

During the twenty-five years of its operations closing with 
1869, the Association visited in the prisons of detention of 
New York and Brooklyn, 93,560 poor and friendless persons, 
many of whom were counseled and assisted as their cases re- 
quired. 

The officers of the society carefully examined 25,290 com- 
plaints; and at their instance 6,148 complaints were with- 
drawn, as being of a trivial character, or founded on mis- 
take, prejudice, or passion. During the same period, 7,922 
persons were discharged by the Courts on the recommendation 
of these officers as young, innocent, penitent, or having of- 



513 NEW YORK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS. 

fended under mitigating circumstances, making a total of 
133,922 cases, to which relief in some form had been extended. 
During the same period 18,307 discharged convicts had been 
aided with board, clothing, tools, railroad tickets, or money ; 
4,139 of the same class had been provided with permanent 
situations, swelling the number to 156,368. 

But the princip^al work of the Association has been intel- 
lectual. It has again and again examined every prison, peni- 
tentiary, and jail throughout the State (numbering about one 
hundred in all), and those of the surrounding States, and of 
the Canadas, pointing out faithfully in its annual reports the 
defective constructure of these establishments, the incompe- 
tency or barbarity of keepers, the chief defects of our prison 
system, and has sought industriously to educate public senti- 
ment and influence the Legislature toward a more humane, 
rational, and reformatory system of prison administration. 
The Association has conducted a valuable correspondence with 
enlightened men of the Old World, who have made this subject 
a matter of special study, thus bringing together the researches 
and experiments of all countries. It has collected volumes of 
statistics which no student can afford to do without. It in- 
forms us that the sixty-eight county jails of New York State 
cost annually about ' a quarter of a million of dollars for 
their maintenance, of which sum not five hundred dollars are 
expended with any view to meeting the religious wants of the 
prisoners. None are supplied with libraries or facilities of 
instruction, and scarcely any have Bibles, though the statute 
specially' enjoins it. 

An earnest inquiry has been made by the Association into 
the sources of crime, and the want of due parental care and 
government has been found the most prolific of all. To im- 
prove society, we must practise upon the injunction, " Train 
up a child in the way he should go; and when he is old, he 
will not depart from it." Of the approximate causes, drink 
is most potent. Two-thirds of all prisoners interrogated ac- 
knowledged that they were of intemperate habits, and not 
one in a hundred had totally abstained from its use. 

Next in the scale comes lewdness. Of six thousand women 
committed to jail in one year, over three-fourths were p>rosti- 
tutes, and near half the men prisoners interrogated confessed 
that they were frequenters of brotliels. Theaters are sources 
of great evil. Nearly fifty per cent, of all committed to prison 
have frequented these places. 




•Black Mabia"— the carnage Ubtd m carryiUtJ cnmrnala Iruui tbt Luuna aud Tombs 
to Blackwell's lelaud. 




Court op Speciai, (sessions in the Tombs. 




Bridge op Sighs "—connecting innor and outer Prison m the Tomb? 









I 




f:d 



l!LiJ^«^^==;:^) 



PREACmNG TO THE FALLEN WOMEK IN THE TOMBS. 



THE CITY PRISONS. 513 

The gambling saloon, above all other places, hardens man's 
moral nature. Of 975 prisoners at Auburn, 317 were ac- 
knowledged gamblers, about one-third ; and the same propor- 
tion was found in the prisons of Connecticut. 

Ignorance and vice are found in sad conjunction. In the 
State of New York but two and seven-tenths per cent, of the 
general population are nuable to read ; but of its criminals 
thirty-one per cent, do not possess that ability. 

Early indolence is another source of great evil. It has 
been ascertained that, of the prisoners of the whole United 
States, more than four-fifths have never learned a trade. 

The Association has contended nobly for the introduction 
of skilled labor into our prisons, and the retention of prisoners 
nntil they are masters of their trades, thus furnishing the 
means for honorable subsistence after their release. 

The Association has ranked among its members many of 
the first men of the State. Its ofiice is in Room 38, I3ible 
House. 




HALLS OF JUSTICE OR TOMBS, CENTRE STREET. 



THE CITY PRISONS. 



The tirst buildino- iised as a jail on Manhattan was on the 
corner of Dock street and Coenties slip. After the erection 
of the City Hall in Wall street, the criminals were confined 
in dungeons in the cellar, while debtors were imprisoned in 
the attic apartments. The next prison erected was known as 
the "New Jail," called also the "Provost" (see page 74), 
from its having been the headquarters and chief dungeon of 
the infamous Cunningham, the British provost marshal of the 
Revolution. It was a strong stone building erected for the 
imprisonment of debtors, and is now the Ilall of Records. 
The pillars which now ornament it are of later origin. The 
next was the Bridewell (see page 69), a cheerless, graystone 
edifice, two stories high, with basement, a front and rear 
pediment, which stood a little west of the present City Hall. 
It was erected for the confinement of vagrants, minor of- 
fenders, and criminals awaiting trial, in 1775, just in time to 
serve as a dungeon for the struggling patriots of the Revo- 
lution. The building was scarcely finished, the windows had 
nothing but iron bars to keep out the cold, yet in the inclement 
season the British thrust eight hundred and sixteen Ameri- 
can prisoners, captured at Fort Washington, into this build- 




INZERIORCF M/\LE PR/'dOA/ 




FEI\U\LE PRISON 2.° TIER. 



THE CITY PRISONS. 515 

ing, where they continued from Saturday to the following 
Thursday, without drink or food. During these perilous years 
all the public and many of the private buildings, besides nu- 
merous sugar-houses and ships, were crowded with suffering 
American prisoners of war. New York was indeed a city of 
prisons. The Bridewell was finally demolished, and much or 
the material used in the erection of the Tombs in 1838. 
After the establisliment of independence a large stone pi-ison 
surrounded by a liigli wall was erected on the west side of the 
island, three miles above the City Hall, called at that time 
Greenwich village. It was ready for the reception of convicts 
in August, 1796, was designed for criminals of the highest 
grade, and was the second State Prison in the United States. 
Sing-Sing prison was begun in 1825 and completed in 1831. 
The New York County Jail, situated at the corner of Ludlow 
street and Essex Market place, was opened in June, 1862, and 
took the place of the old Eldridge street jail. It is built in tlie 
form of an L, ninety feet on each street, forty feet deep and 
sixty-five high, leaving a yard of fifty feet square, surrounded 
by a high wall, in which prisoners are allowed to exercise. 
The building contains eighty-seven cells. Besides the above 
there are four other places of involuntary confinement on 
Manhattan, all of which are under the control of the Com- 
missioners of Charities and Corrections, and in each of which 
a Police Court convenes every morning to examine the 
charges brouglit against persons arrested. The Halls of Jus- 
tice, the principal building situated between Centre, Elm, 
Leonard, and Franklin streets, on the site of the old Collect 
Pond, was begun in 1835 and completed in 1838. It is a 
two-story building constructed of Maine white granite in the 
Egyptian order, is 253 by 200 feet and occupies the four sides 
of a hollow square. The front on Centre street is reached l)y 
a broad flight of granite steps, and the portico is supported by 
several massive Egyptian columns. The windows, which ex- 
tend through both stories, have heavy iron-grated frames. 
The female department is situated in the section which ex- 
tends along Leonard street, and is presided over by an amiable 
Christian matron who has held her position witli great credit 
for more than twenty years. In the front of the edifice are 
rooms for the Court of Sessions, the Police Court, etc., which 
have given it its name, " Halls of Justice." In the centre of 
the enclosed yard, distinct from tlie other buildings, stands 
the men's prison, 142 by 45 feet, containing 148 cells. State 



516 NEW YORK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS. 

criminals have been executed in the open court. The prison 
stands on low, damp ground in the vicinity of a poor and 
riotous neighborhood, is poorly ventilated, was never calcu- 
lated to well accommodate over two hundred prisoners, yet, 
the annual average is nearly four hundred, and often greatly 
exceeds that number. It has lately been condemned by the 
grand jury of tlie county as a nuisance, and as the Commis- 
sioners have repeatedly recommended the building of a large 
and well-arranged prison in a more suitable locality, it is not 
likely that the frowning, dingy "Tombs" will long continue 
in tlie city. The building as it appeared some thirty years 
ago contained a higli tower which was destroyed by fire on the 
day appointed for the execution of Colt, and is believed to 
have been a part of the unsuccessful plan for his escape. The 
next largest is the Jefferson Market prison, situated at the 
corner of Greenwich avenue and Tenth street. Its exterior 
is of brick, and contains besides its court-rooms twenty-five 
large cells, a single one of which sometimes contains ten or 
twenty drunken men. The daily commitments here amount 
to from thirty-five to fifty, and in seasons of general disorder 
many more. Adjoining the prison stands engine house No. 
11 of the old fire department, which has been arranged for 
the female prison. This prison is kept remarkably clean, not- 
withstanding the masses of seething corruption huddled to- 
gether in it day and night through all the year. The cells 
are well warmed but not furnished with beds, as the prisoners 
are usually detained here but one night, and never but a few 
days. Many of them are so filthy and so covered with vermin, 
that beds cannot be kept in a proper condition. The third 
district prison is known as the Essex Market, situated at C9 
Essex street, and is a little smaller than the one just described. 
The fourth is situated at Fifty-seventh street and Lexington 
avenue ; the cells, capable of liolding about forty prisonere, 
are in the basement under the Court-house. Small as these 
prisons are, no less than 49,423 persons were detained in them 
during 1870. All classes are seen liere, from the ignorant 
imbruted bully to the expert and polished villain. Some are 
abashed and sit weeping over their folly; others are reticent 
and collected. The visitor is often surprised to learn that 
that handsome female leaning over the banister, clad in rich 
silks, with gold chain, pin, and bracelets, is a prisoner ar- 
rested for disorderly conduct. 

The business at the Police Courts, and also at the Court 




NEW YORK DISPENSARY. 

North-West corner of Centre and White Streets. 




NORTHERN DISPENSART. 

Waverlij Place corner of Christopher Street. 




EASTERN DISPENSARY. 

No. 57 Essex Street. 




DEMILT PISPENPABY 

Comer of Second Avenue and East Twenty-Third Street. 



THE CITY PKISONS. 517 

of Sessions, is dispatched with wonderful rapidity. At the 
former the Justice hears the charge of the officer, the expla- 
nation of the prisoner, aud decides without counsel or jury 
whether he shall be discharged, fiued, or detained for trial at 
the Court of Sessions. The vast majority of all arrested are 
discharged after spending a night in the station-house. The 
Court of Sessions convenes every Tuesday and Saturday for 
the trial of all cases involving doubt, argument, or proof. 
This is strictly a criminal court, and the prisoner is allowed 
to introduce counsel and witnesses. A visitor from the 
country where a criminal suit consumes from three to ten 
days takes his seat in the court-room and is surprised to see 
six or ten cases disposed of in thirty minutes. 

The names of Mrs. Blake and Bridget are called. 

Bridget has been the servant of Mrs. B., who has caused her 
arrest for stealing money from the drawer. Mrs. B. takes 
the witness stand, makes her full statement to the Judge, 
answers all his questions as to how she knew Bridget took 
the money, when she caused her arrest, &c. The policeman 
is next called, who states that he arrested her and found the 
money. Bridget, who has been leaning on the iron railing 
which cuts off the prisoners' space from the main court-room, 
is now called upon. She has no counsel, but wishes Mrs. E-. 
to speak in her behalf. The lady is heard — states that Bridget 
lived several years in her house, and was never known to 
steal. The Judge recalls Mrs. Blake and inquires hurriedly, 
" Has she ever stolen anything of you before ? " On being 
told that she has not, he turns to Bridget and says, " The 
Court suspends judgment as this is the first offence, but if 
you ever come here again I shall send you to Blackwell's 
Island." Two men are arraigned for striking a policeman 
who arrested them in a drunken row, swinging a loaded 
revolver. The officer gives his testimony, after which he is 
thoroughly sifted by the counsel of the prisoners, who tries in 
vain to entangle and embarrass him. Next come witnesses 
for the prisoners (old cronies), who drank freely with them on 
the occasion referred to, but who know they were not drunk 
or disorderly — that the pistol fell out of his pocket, and that 
the officer was wholly to blame. The officer is recalled, and 
reaffirms what he has said. " Have you no witnesses to 
sustain you ? " says the Judge. The officer had not supposed it 
necessary to bring any. Tlie Judge \vrings about on his chair, 
runs liis fingers through his whiskei-s aud says, " The law 



518 NEW YORK AND ITS ENSTITUTIONS. 

forbids disorderly persons carrying loaded fire-arms; I fine 
them ten dollars each." Two colored men next respond to the 
call. The one npon the stand is about forty-five, and deposes 
that he lost a watch worth twenty-five dollars, and that the 
prisoner leaning on the rail took it. ' The prisoner is a plump, 
well-formed youth of twenty-two, who meanwhile rolls up 
his eyes and sweeps the entire audience of the court-room. 
"Did you cause his immediate arrest?" inquires the Judge. 
" Yes, sir." " Did you find the watch ? " "I did." " Who 
arrested him ? " " Ofiicer Cone." The officer is called, and 
details in few words the arrest, search and the recovery of 
the lost property. The Judge turns to the prisoner and 
inquires, " Have you counsel ? " " Yes, sir." " Wlio is he ? " 
A name is given. "He is not here," says the Judge; "I 
sentence you to the Penitentiary for six months." In this 
way the business goes on for hours. With all this dispatch 
the truth is generally reached, and the principal errors are on 
the side of mercy, dismissing far too many to satisfy justice 
or answer the ends of good government. 

Religious services of some kind are held in the Tombs 
on every day of the week except Saturday. 

Sunday morning and Tuesday forenoon are set apart for 
the Catholics, while Sunday afternoon and Tuesday afternoon 
are devoted to the Episcopalians. Monday is reserved for 
the Methodists if they choose to employ it, Wednesday, 
Thui-sday and Friday being devoted to various Protestant 
Societies who send male and female representatives to read 
the Scriptures, exhort and pray with the prisoners. We 
have been explicit in this statement because it has been asserted 
that only Catholics had free access and full conveniences for 
conducting worship in this prison. A vast amount of mission- 
ary labor is expended here annually by members of all 
denominations. These pious endeavors are often crowned 
with excellent results, and though the seed often falls upon 
a barren soil, the faithful sower shall not lose his reward. 



1 > 



'^&), ! 



^r, 



'Crrr^. 



fill: 



^riiiifPtMiiLtj 



'ET p ^ -^ 



tfirflXtUJ""'^ 



^_^J^ffjH|f|^?fj 



{Ninth avemie corner West Thirty-ssixth street.) 
THE NEW YORK IVIEDICAL DISPENSARIES. 

Perhaps no enterprise for the amelioration of the condition 
of the siiffei'ing poor of the city of New York has been more 
widely patronized, or accomplished more for the physical re- 
lief of the last three generations, than the dispensary system. 

On the fourteenth day of October, 1790, at a meeting of 
the " Medical Society of the city of New York," it was re- 
solved, " That a Committee be appointed to digest and publish 
a plan of a Dispensary for the medical relief of the sick poor 
of this city, and to make an offer of the professional services 
of the members of this society to carry it into effect." Ur- 
gent and eloquent appeals were soon made to the public 
through the several daily papers, and on the 4th of January, 
1791, a meeting of benevolent citizens convened in tlie City 
Hall in "Wall street, where a constitution and the necessary 
by-laws were adopted. Hon. Isaac Roosevelt was chosen 
President, and Drs. Bayley and Bard senior physicians. The 
New York Dispensary was tirst established in Tryon street, 
now Tryon row, where it continued in a single room thirty- 



620 NEW YORK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS. 

eight years. The first aiiiiiial report declared that 310 patients 
had been treated during the year, contrastina; strangely with 
the report of 1871, which announces that 38,770 had received 
treatment during the last year, and about 79,000 pi-escriptions 
made. It is also worthy of note that the first was made when 
but one dispensary existed on the island, the last when over 
twenty of various kinds are engaged in a similar work. The 
act incor])orating the New York Dispensary passed the Legis- 
lature April 8th, 1795, and in 1805 a union was effected be- 
tween the Dispensary and the Kine-pock Institution, which 
had been established three years previously in tlie rear of the 
brick church opposite the Park. The number of patients an- 
nually increased, amounting in 1828 to 10,000. Efforts were 
then made to secure better accommodations, the authorities 
contributed a lot of land on the corner of Centre and Wliite 
streets, a three-story brick edifice was erected and made ready 
for occupation on the 28th of December, 1829. The building 
and furniture cost a trifle more tlian eight thousand dollars. 
During the last four years the old edifice has been removed 
and a new and beautiful building erected in its place, cover- 
ing the entire site and costing $72,488. The lower floor is 
divided into stores and rented ; the second is the Dispensary, 
with very commodious apartments ; the two upper floors are 
also rented for business uses. This large outlay has been 
partially met with generous donations from the trustees and 
friends of the enterprise ; a mortgage of $20,000, however, 
still remains on the property. The last Legislature granted 
the Institution $10,000. This Dispensary grants medicine 
and the attention of its physicians to the suffering poor of the 
First, Second, Third, and Fourth Wards without charge. It 
occupies that section of the city where the most of its busi- 
ness is transacted, where large fortunes are made, but where 
few besides the poor tarry over night. These, however, are 
herded together in vast numbers, affording an abundant harvest 
for cholera, small-pox, ship-fever, yellow-fever, etc. Without 
the New Yoi-k Dispensary this crowded section would often 
be turned into a carnival of suffering, endangering the lives 
of the whole population. Since its organization in 1790 it has 
treated 1,463,747 patients. 

The Northern Dlsj^ensary was the second on the island, 
organized in 1827. It is situated on the corner of Chris- 
topher street and Waverley place. 

In 1834 the Eaatem Disjpensary was organized. This fur- 



THE NEW YOKK MEDICAL DISPENSARIES. 521 

nishes medicine, medical and surgical services gratuitously to 
the sick poor of that section of the city bounded by Pike 
street and Allen, First avenue, and Fourteenth street, to the 
East river. This Dispensary during the first thirty-live and 
one-half years of its existence has administered to 768,828 
patients, an annual average of over twenty-one thousand. 
Of this number 352,267 were native Americans, the remain- 
ing 416,561 were born in foreign lands. The average cost 
of each patient to the society has been 14r^ cents. The Dis- 
pensary is situated over the Essex Market. The trustees 
own no building, but now contemplate the erection of one. 

The Detnilt Dispensary was organized in 1851. In 
1852-53 the trustees erected a line three-story building on the 
corner of Second avenue and Twenty-third street, at a cost 
of $30,000 including the site. This property has with the 

frowth of the city doubled in value, and is free from debt, 
'he territory assigned to this Dispensary is comprised in the 
Eighteenth and Twenty-first Wards, or that portion lying 
east of Sixth avenue between Fourteenth and Fortieth 
streets. The population of this district in 1850 was 31,557, 
in 1860 it amounted to 106,489, and in 1870 to 111,638. 
During these twenty years it has treated 464,596 patients, 
over eighty-five thousand of whom have been treated by the 
physicians at their homes, and 899,075 prescriptions have 
been dis])ensed, an average of 125 per day. 

The North-eastern Dispensary was incorporated in 1862. 
It ministers to the sick poor residing between Fortieth and 
Sixtieth streets, and between Sixth avenue and the East river. 
During 1870, 13,309 persons received gratuitous treatment at 
the Dispensary, and 3,101 patients were treated at their dwell- 
ings. Eighteen physicians constitute the medical staff. 

The North-eastern Homoeopathic Dispensary was founded 
in 1868. It is situated at 307 East Fifty-fifth street, in hired 
buildings, and has treated since its opening over forty thou- 
sand patients, and made over eighty-five thousand prescrip- 
tions, and two thousand visits. 

The North-io ester n was incorporated in 1852, and began 
in hired rooms at No. 511 Eighth avenue. It is designed 
to bless the sick and suffering poor in that large district 
lying west of Fifth avenue, between Twenty-third and 
Eighty-sixth streets. No funds for the permanent estab- 
lishment of the Institution were raised until 1866, when 
a subscription was started which secured during the next 



522 NEW YORK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS. 

two years about nineteen thousand dollai*s, to which the 
Corporation added the sum of $15,000. A piece of land 
purchased on Broadway was again sold at a profit of $10,000. 
The trustees have now completed one of the finest Dispensary 
buildings on the island, at a cost of $83,000, an indebtedness 
of over thirty thousand dollars still remaining on the prop- 
erty. Besides affording very ample and commodious apart- 
ments for the use of the Institution itself, it contains a large 
store, and a beautiful hall rented for divine service. When this 
indebtedness is removed it is believed the income from the 
building will render the Dispensary nearly self-sustaining. 
The number of patients treated varies from 10,000 to 15,000 
per annum. 

Besides these there are also various other Dispensaries es- 
tablished for the treatment of special diseases, as the Now 
York Dispensary for the Treatment of Cancer, the New 
York Disjpensary for Diseases of Throat and Chest, the 
IHeio York Dispensary for Diseases of Shin, and others. 

Most of these Institutions receive $1,000 per annum from 
the Corporation, to which the State sometimes adds an addi- 
tional thousand or more as they may need. Aside from this 
they are supported by private donations. The amount of 
good resulting to the city and country fi-om the kindly treat- 
ment administered to these 200,000 patients, who annually 
apply to these well-arranged Institutions of mercy, is incalcu- 
lable. The results from the system of free vaccination alone, 
are ample for all the expenses of the entire undertaking. 
This charity of all others is least liable to abuse, and is annu- 
ally attended with great and manifest advantages to our 
whole population. 




CHAPTER VI. 
INSTITUTIONS OF BLACKWELL'S ISLAND. 



THE ISLANDS AND THE AUTHORITIES. 

{Office of Commissioners of Chanties and Corrections, corner EleventJi street 
and Third avenue. — See cut above.) 

Before enterino^ into a detailed account of the institutions 
located in the East river, let us pause and consider briefly the 
history of the Islands themselves and the policy of those who 
control them. One cannot contemplate without feelings of 
high sadsf action the extensive municipal charities of the city of 
New York. In their origin they were few and meager, dating 
far back when the city was small, and the public mind but 



524 NEW YORK AXD ITS INSTITUTIONS. 

poorly enlightened on questions of this kind. The little hovels 
and shanties of the past have all been superseded by colossal 
brick and stone structures, containing all the modern improve- 
ments of the age, with every known convenience for the 
relief of the indigent of all ages, the blind, the afflicted, the 
insane, the inebriate, and for the correction of the criminal. 
Our public charities, which once consisted of a little Alms- 
house, have now multiplied until more than thirty buildings, 
many of them the largest of their kind in the country, have 
been brought into requisition. The penal and correctional in- 
stitutions, though they liave not kept pace with the charitable, 
have also been greatly enlarged, and are now valued at 
nearly $3,000,000. The charitable institutions, with their 
grounds and furniture are valued at $5,500,000, and the 
annual expenditures in the maintenance of these buildings, 
with an annual register of 92,000, and an average population 
of eight thousand, and the necessary expenditures in new 
buildings and grounds, amounts to $2,000,000. 

The great increase of our population, and the consequent 
enlargement of our municipal institutions have necessitated 
the outlay of large sums in securing real estate, and the 
selections for the most part have been very judiciously made. 
Those beautiful islands of the East river, in particular, sepa- 
rated on either side from the great world by a deep crystal 
current, appear to have been divinely arranged as a home for 
the unfortunate and the suffering, and a place of quiet re- 
formatory meditation for the vicious. A brief sketch of 
these islands will not be out of place in this volume. 

Black^vell's Island is a narrow strip of land in the East 
river, extending from Fifty-first to Eighty-eighth streets, 
about a mile and a half in length, and contains one hundred 
and twenty acres. It was eai-ly patented to Governor Yan 
Twiller, and was subsequently owned by the Blackwell 
family, from whom it derives its name, for more than a 
hundred years. The ancestral residence, a cozy wood cot- 
tage over a hundred years old, situated near the centre of 
the island, is still in fine repair, and likely to long survive the 
present generation. This island was purchased by the city 
July 19, 1828, for the sum of $30,000, but the authorities 
were compelled in 1843 to expend $20,000 more to perfect 
the title. The little steamers owned by the Commissioners,, 
making several trips per day in the interest of mercy and 
justice, are the only vessels allowed to land at her piers with- 



ms-HTUTioNS OF blackwell's island. 525 

out special permit. The labor of docking, building sea wall, 
and the admirable grading by wliich the island is made to 
slope gradually on either side to the water brink, has all been 
performed by inmates of the Penitentiary and Workhouse. 
The island is now valued at $600,000 exclusive of buildings. 

Ward's Island, situated immediately above the preced- 
ing, takes its name from Jasper and Bartholomew Ward, its 
former proprietors, and extends from One Hundred and First 
to One Hundred and Fifteenth streets, containing about two 
hmidred acres. It was formerly known as " Great Barcut," 
or " Great Barn " Island, and was termed by the Indian 
"Ten-ken-as." It was purchased by Van Twiller in 1637, 
confiscated in 1664, and granted to Thomas Delavel. The 
Wards obtained it in 1806, and in December, 1847, a part of 
it was leased (afterwards purchased) by the Commissioners of 
Emigration for the establishment of the Emigrant Refuge 
and Hospital. Over half of the island is now owned by 
these Commissioners. The Commissioners of Charities and 
Corrections purchased a portion of it June 18, 1852, and have 
since made several additional purchases. The Potter's Field, 
the place of interment for paupers and strangers, was for 
some years located here, but has recently been removed to 
Hart Island. Ward's Island is wider than Blackwell's, and 
the soil more arable. The portion of this island owned by 
the Commissioners of Charities and Corrections is valued at 
$360,000. 

Randall's Island takes its name from Jonathan Randall, 
who purchased it in 1784, and resided upon it nearly fifty 
years. It lies north of Ward's Island, and extends nearly to 
Westchester county. It was formerly known as "Little 
Barn" Island. This island was also patented under the 
Dutch Government, and, like Ward's, was confiscated in 1664, 
and also granted to Thomas Delavel. It was subsequently at 
different periods denominated " Bell Isle," " Talbot's Island," 
and " Montressor's Island." It was purchased by the city in 
1835 for $50,000. Thirty acres of the southern portion have 
since been sold to the Society for the Reformation of Juvenile 
Delinquents. Besides furnishing ample grounds for the 
numerous Nursery buildings it contains a large and pro- 
ductive farm, cultivated by the Commissioners of Charities 
and Corrections, furnishing large amounts of vegetables for 
the institutions. Their portion of the island is valued at 
$520,000. 



52G NEW YORK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS. 

Haet Island is situated in the town of Pelham, Westches- 
ter county, in Long Island Sound, about fourteen miles from 
Bellevue. This island became the property of Oliver Delan- 
cey in 1775, who sold it to Samuel Rodman for £550. In 
1819, it was deeded to John Hunter, who died September 12, 
1852. After his decease his heirs deeded it to John Hunter 
jr., grandson of the preceding, July 10, 1866. The United 
States Government leased it for army nses December 5, 1863, 
for one year, for the sum of $500, w^ith privilege of retaining 
it five or less years longer at an increased rent, the buildings 
erected by government to remain the property of the lessor. 
A village of one-story wood buildings, for the accommodation 
of troops, was soon erected, spreading over the principal parts 
of the island. Under authority of an act of Legislature j^assed 
April 11, 1868, authoriziug " additional facilities for the in- 
terment of the pauper dead in the city of New York," the 
Commissioners of Charities and Corrections on May 16, 1868, 
purchased all except three acres of the southern point (which 
the owner hopes to sell to the United States for the erection 
of a light-house), for the sum of $75,000. The island is esti- 
mated to contain about one hundred acres, but is suffering 
constant loss from the action of the tides. It is probable 
that the Penitentiary will be removed to this island in a few 
years at most. 

The management of the municipal charities and correc- 
tions of Manhattan was for years committed to five Commis- 
sioners appointed by the Common Council. In 1845, the 
whole was placed under the charge of one Commissioner ; in 
1849 the number was increased to ten ; and in 1859 the 
number was again changed to four, to be half Democrats 
and half Republicans, appointed for the term of six years by 
the city Controller. The new charter of 1870 increases the 
number to five, to be appointed by the Mayor for the term of 
five years, abolishing the equal political representation. 

The present board is composed of intellectual, high-minded 

fentlemen, representing both political parties, as well as the 
'rotestant and the Roman Catholic faith. Their annual re- 
port now amounts to an octavo volume of five hundred or six 
hundred pages, and one cannot examine one of these without 
perceiving that our municipal institutions are managed with 
great discretion and skill. Those great problems which have 
puzzled the humane and thoughtful in all ages such as the best 
moral treatment for the insane, the relief and elevation of 



INSTITUTIOXS OF BLACKWELl's ISLAND. 527 

the indigent, the reformatory discipline of criminals, the re- 
covery ot vagrant and truant youth, the measures for secur- 
mg the lowest bill of mortality among foundlino-s, the refor- 
mation of the inebriate, and the best hygienic and economic 
conduct ot public institutions, are made matters of constant 
study, resulting in frequent and manifest improvements. As 
might be expected, visitors in large numbers throng the insti- 
tutions, but all are treated with decided urbanity. Many of 
the buperintendents, Wardens, and Chiefs of £)epartments 
liave retained their positions many years, a few more than a 
quarter of a century, and to whose intelligence and kindness 
we cheerfully acknowledge our indebtedness for many facts 
presented in this volume. 

A Protestant and a Eoraan Catholic chaplain give daily 
attention to the spiritual wants of the inmates of these build- 
mgs, holdmg brief and earnest services in each every Sabbath 
Missionaries from any and all of the denominations are 
granted every reasonable opportunity to carry the messages 
ot the gospel to those receiving either corrections or charities 
in conclusion, we can but feel that our municipal institutionsl 
are a credit and an ornament to the great city which fills 
and supports them. a j 




THE HOSPITALS OF BLACKWELL'S ISLAND. 

ELLEYUE was for some years the only hospital under 
§■ ^^^ management of the public authorities of New 
-.^ lork City. After the erection of the Penitentiary 
^ one ot its rooms was set apart for a hospital. In 1848 
during the administration of Moses G. Leonard, Commissioned 
ot the Almshouse, at that time acting under the Common 
Council of the City, the first hospital building was erected 
on the Island called the " Penitentiary Hospital^' The build- 
ing was of brick, and was completed in 1849, the same year 
tiiat the ten Governor" system came into existence. "The 
name was changed to the "Island Hospital" by resolution of 
the Governors December 15th, 1857. The Governors ap^ 
pointed a committee to examine the building soon after its 



528 NEW YOKK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS. 

completion, who reported that they found it " constructed in 
a most reckless and careless manner, and was as a public 
building a reproach to an}^ oity." It was pronounced inse- 
cure, and the Governors were about to pull it down, when it 
was accidentally destroyed by fire on the morning of February 
13, 1858. At the time of the disaster, it contained 530 in- 
mates, who were all removed without loss of life. It is 
believed that it would soon have fallen down if it had not 
been thus destroyed. 

The corner-stone of the Charity Hosjpital, erected on the 
site of the one so liappily destroyed, was laid with appropri- 
ate services July 22, 1858. An address was delivered on the 
occasion by Washington Smith, Esq., President of the board 
of Governors. 

This magnificent structure is of stone quarried from the 
island by the convicts, and is the largest hospital about New 
York, and probably the largest on the continent. It is a 
three and a half story, 354 feet long, and 122 wide. The 
two wings are each 122 by 50 feet, and the central building 
90 by 52, and 60 feet high. The entire hospital is divided 
into twenty-nine wards, most of which are 47^ feet in length, 
and ranging from 23 to 44 feet in width. The smallest ward 
contains 13 beds, and the largest 39. The Hospital contains 
832 beds, but has capacity for 1,200, and each bed has 813 
cubic feet of space, aifording an abundance of pure air in all 
its parts. In 1864 no less than 1,400, most of them sick and 
wounded soldiers, were domiciled here. The eastern wing of 
the building is occupied by the males, and the western by the 
females, and the whole so classified as to accommodate to the 
best advantage the large number of patients always under 
treatment. Wards are set apart for consumptives, for vene- 
real, uterine, dropsical, ophthalmic, obstetrical, and syphil- 
itic disorders. Also for broken bones, and the other classes 
of casualty patients. Two wards are set apart for the treat- 
ment of diseases of the eye and the ear, and are in charge of 
distinguished physicians, who have made the diseases of those 
organs their special study. The stairways are of iron, the 
floors of white Southern pine, which, with their frequent 
ablutions and scourings, and the snow-white counterpane 
spread over each bed, gives such unmistakable evidence of 
neatness, as to quite surprise many not familiar with the con- 
duct of public institutions. From six thousand to eight thou- 
sand patients are annually treated in this Hospital, most of 



THE HOSPITALS 6F BLACKWELl's ISLAND. 



529 



wliom are charity patients, four hundred or five hundred of 
whom die, and most of the remainder are discharged, cured 
or relieved. 




SMALL POX Hf)sPI FAL, 



A short distance below this main Hospital, situated on the 
extreme southern point of the island, stands the Small-Pox 
Hospital, erected in 1854. It is a three-story stone edi- 
fice, 104 by 44 feet, in the English Gothic order, with accom- 
modations for one hundred patients, and cost $38,000. This 
is the only hospital in New York devoted to this class of 
patients, and hence receives them from all the public and 
private hospitals, from the Commissioners of Emigration, and 
from private families. It is a fine building, well arranged 
and admirably conducted, designed not only for paupers, but 
for pay patients, where, secluded from friends to whom they 
might impart their disease, they receive every attention that 
science and the most skillful nursing can bestow. This Hos- 
pital is rarely empty, and receives from two hundred to one 
thousand patients annually. For want of suitable buildings 
persons afflicted with other contagious eruptive diseases have 
been from necessity placed in the Small-Pox Hospital, some- 
times to their detriment. This difficulty is being obviated by 
the erection of separate pavilions for such cases. 

The Fever Hospitals, devoted principally to the treatment 
of typhus and ship fever, consist of two wooden pavilions. 



B30 NEW YORK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS. 

each 100 feet in length, one of which is assigned to either 
sex. These structures are capable of accommodating about 
one hundred patients, though a larger number is of necessity 
at times admitted. They are situated on the eastern side of 
the Island, between the Charity and Small-Pox Hospitals. A 
warden has the general supervision of these several hospitals. 
The medical direction of them was, until March, 1866, un- 
der the supervision of the Medical Board of Bellevne, but at 
that time the Commissioners appointed a separate board, 
consisting of two consulting and twenty-two visiting physi- 
cians and surgeons. Two valuable members of this board 
lost their lives in 1868, from pestilential disease contracted 
while in the discliarge of their hospital duties. Tliis board 
is industriously collecting a museum in the Charity Hos- 
pital, which is annually receiving many valuable additions. 
The grounds around these institutions are very inviting, the 
view rich and diversified, and everything, save the countenance 
of the suffering patients, wears an air of cheerfulness. 

The Hospitals for Incurahles are situated on the Alms 
House grounds, and are briefly described in the account of 
that Institution. 

The Epileptic Hospital was established in 1866, for the 
treatment of a class of unfortunates hitherto abandoned as 
incurable, and permitted to go through the several stages of 
their disease until it ended in idiocy, insanity, or death. The 
Commissioners have the credit of establishing the first of its 
kind on this continent, and with the exception of a small one 
in London, the first in the world. 

The Paralytic Hospital was also established in 1866. 
These were first placed under the control of a distinguished 
physician with two assistants, but as he was soon compelled 
to retire, they were for a time under charge of the Medical 
board of Charity Hospital, but have since been transferred 
to the board of the Lunatic Asylum. These hospitals are 
pavilions on the grounds devoted to the Lunatic Asylum, and 
their establishment has already been a source of relief to 
many. They contain sixty-five beds each, and are always 
well filled. 



Illllllilll III 1 I' 





THE NEW yoke: PENITENTIAEY. 

fHE Kew York Penitentiary on Blackwell's Island 
stands nearly opposite Fifty-fifth street, and was the 
first institution established on the island. The south- 
ern wing of the building was begun soon after the 
purchase of the island in 1S28, the central portion was next 
added, and the northern wings are the result of subsequent 
additions. 

The building is constructed of hewn stone and rubble 
masonry, and consists of a central portion 65 by 75 feet, with 
three wings each 50 by 200 feet, and several stories high. 
The fioors are of stone and the stairways of iron. There are 
500 cells for males, and 256 for females, yet the building is 
often rather small to accommodate tlie aspiring candidates. 
The prisoners sent here are from the New York courts, whose 
term of confinement with the majority is from one to six 
months, though occasionally one remains several years. 
AVhen a prisoner is received, a record is made of his name, 
age, weight, and the condition of his health ; also of his 
nationality, history, and the offence for which he was com- 
mitted. Every convict is expected to perform some service 
unless sick, when he is sent to the hospital. Most of them 
are allowed to follow their former occupations, and are em-- 
ployed at times as blacksmiths, wagon-makers, boat-builders, 
carpenters, coopers, painters, wheelwrights, shoemakers, tail- 
ors, gardeners, stone-cutters, boatmen, etc. ; and others, whose 
former indolence has kept them from every useful occupation, 
are instructed in the sublime arts of blasting, quarrying, and 
pounding rocks. The island originally abounded with rich 
quarries, most of which have now been exhausted in the 
erection of the princely edifices that crown its surface, a 
very large proportion of the toil havhig been performed by 
the convicts. A gang of men is daily sent to Randall's and 
another to Hart Islands ; to the latter of which, on account 
of its isolated condition, there is prospect of the entire Peni- 
tentiary establishment being removed. The erection of the 
Infant Hospital, the Inebriate Asylum, the new Insane Asy- 
lum, and every other new edifice, furnishes a large amount 
of toil in grading and ornamenting, to which their time and 



632 



NEW YORK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS. 



toil are devoted. Their toil, however, is not rigorous. Indeed, 
it is immensely lighter than many of us accomplish who are 
yet out of prison. Toil is also one of the most salutary forms 
of discipline that can be administered to criminals of any age, 
grade, or nationality. Without this there can scarcely be 
reformation, and the neglect of it has plunged most criminals 
into the sea of infamy in which they are engulfed. A few 
learn trades while on the island, which enable them, on their 
return to society, to earn not only an honest, but a comfort- 
able livelihood. 

The convicts 
are all well clad 
in striped wool- 
en garments, and 
provided with 
suitable bedding 
and food. We 
saw two small 
regiments of 
them at dinner, 
which consisted 
of one pound 
of beef, ten 
ounces of bread, 
and a quart of 
vegetable soup 
per man. At 
breakfast, they 
are served with 
ten ounces of 
bread, and one quart of good coffee each. 

The number of prisoner retained on the island is less than 
it was twenty years ago, more being retained in the city 
prisons, and a large number are now annually sent to the 
Workhouse. On December 31, 1851, 803 were in confine- 
ment at the Penitentiary, and during the twelve months im- 
mediately following, 3,450 were committed. In 1853, 5,236 
were committed, and at the close of the year 1,176 remained. 
The year 1869 began with 502 inmates ; 1,563 were commit- 
ted during the j^ear, and 461 remained at its close, making a 
daily average of 477 prisoners, maintained at an expenditure 
of $73,972.35. Of those committed 1,224 were males, and 339 
females. 276 of them were between the ages of fifteen and 
twenty years; 427 from twenty to twenty-five; 316 from 




aUABD-BOATS. 



THE NEW YOKE PENTTENTIAItT. 533 

twenty-five to thirty, after wliich the number in each semi 
decade steadily decreases. Twenty were under fifteen yeTrs" 

} ears of age, and appeal anxiously for the adoption of somp 
measure to arrest the progress of these cadetsTcr?me e^e 
.hey are irrevocably enrolled in the ranks of thS a^n? 
WW march terminates only at the State Pri"- on Z' 

...?I ^H¥^^. «o°i°ii«ed, 730 were of American birth HDut 
mostly of foreign blood) ; 482 came from Ireland 168 from 

GanT^l'.f^ h"" ^°-i""5' 2^ f^'^^ Scotland; 24 froin 
Canada, 13 from France, 12 from Prussia, and the remaining 
35^i.presented the other countries of Europe and tlTwesf 

fh«?Vn7/'''°'^' "^^^ 'y^'""^ ^^^y ^^r« ^J^arged we may state 
that 1,078 were committed for petit larcenv 259 fr^ Jol u 
and battery, 34 for grand larce^, 27 fHurglar^ 2^^^^^^^^^ 
vagrancy, and a smaller number for nearly evTy SVspecie 
of mischief in the cataloo-ue of crimP Tl,l o "^^f^^P^^^es 

rie:;.' „r? t zi^^'r^'^ "■"""^^ 'if 

yr tue 1,563 there were unmarried 963; married SOT- 

mXrSV: '"'""'l' '^ '«=""^"'^^'' S3 wait" hoe 
CnS ,1 ■emamder were scattered througli over a 
hundred trades t.Iiough in fact many have never foUowed 
anything. Of the females, 224 were renorts,! »» ^ • 

53 seamstresses, 13 dress-mkei, 10 laZd 4ses etc S -- 
are employed with the needle, a-ld in otherTrancts oTZ 
fulness around the Institution. One cannotTook over an 
aud.ence of these convicts, and meet the g a nces of the^r 
bnlhant eyes, without being assured that tie Penitentiarv 
contains as much talent as any other structure in the com' y 



534: NEW YORK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS. 

of New York. And how sad the reflection that this magnili- 
cent ]n]e of masonry, that ci-owns this green island, is a 
crowded pandemonium — an empire of fallen Lucifers, of 
wasted energies, disappointed ambitions, and perverted genius, 
not likely to again rise to a virtuous life, or a blissful immor- 
tality. 

The moral condition of prisoners has from a remote period 
enlisted the sympathies of the benevolent, and led to associ- 
ated efforts for their relief, yet improvements in prison discip- 
line progressed but slowly until within the last fifty years, 
leaving still ample scope for the study of the thoughtful. 
Justice is not often administered with undue severity in our 
country. Indeed it is frequently quite too lax to promote the 
])ublic good. Yet the best ends of penal justice are not often 
secured in our public prisons, and are far too frequently ut- 
terly ignored. 

The object of imprisonment should be three-fold : 1. To 
separate the culprit from society, whose security he endangers, 
and whose confidence he has forfeited. 2. To make him sensi- 
ble of the law he has violated ; and 3. To secure if possible 
his reformation and return to the useful walks of life. The 
first two parts are tolerably well secured in all countries, but 
the last and most important is rarely attained, and far too sel- 
dt»m attempted. A keeper of a prison should be selected for 
his moral qualities, and one who ignores or scoffs at the refor- 
mation of a convict thereby demonstrates his utter incompe- 
tency for so important a calling. Every possible incentive to 
reformation should be held out, and every influence intro- 
duced and fostered likely to excite the desire of amendment, 
or to bring up from the depths of his fallen nature the return 
of buried manhood. While the reformation of the criminal 
is neglected, a large percentage of those under confinement, 
especially the younger and more hopeful portion, are certain 
to return to society more determined villains than when they 
left it, and the penal institution, instead of suppressing, virtu- 
ally increases the crime. 

The Commissioners have had under advisement for some 
time past the matter of introducing a more rational system of 
reformatory discipline, than that of mere compulsory toil. 
The prisoners have been carefully classified, and a system of 
evening school instruction introduced. The matter of enter- 
ing the school is entirely voluntary, though after entering they 
are not allowed to abandon it at pleasure. The school was 




"Male Convict^ Pl.MTIl^TiAKl Li.ack\\ ell's Island. 




Fbmalk CoNyicTs. Pbnitkntiart Blackwbll's Island. 



At=^=MIMi \\\\\^ 




THE NEW YORK PENTTENTIART. 535 

organized on the evening of November 16, 1869, nnder the 
anspices of the School Trustees of the Nineteenth Ward, who 
provided an able corps of teachers. At the opening session 
130 were present as pupils, and on January 10, 1870, the reg- 
ister contained the names of 223 or 64 per cent, of those of 
the males so situated as to be able to attend. The largest num- 
ber of pupils were between the ages of eighteen and twenty- 
two years, the next between twenty-two and twenty-nine, the 
youngest of all being fourteen, and the eldest lifty-two years 
of age. The uneducated for the most part appeared anxious 
to acquire an education, and the more scholarly disposed to 
further pursue their studies. 

For want of room the most judicious separation of the pris- 
oners cannot be secured, but a system of merit marks analo- 
gous to the MacConochie, or " Irish system," has been intro- 
duced, so that faithful observance of the rules of the prison, 
and such conduct as secures the approval of the warden re- 
ceives a monthly recognition, which the Commissioners report 
to the Governor of the State, recommending an abridgement 
of their terai of confinement. We are happy to be thus able 
to chronicle the begining of a more rational and humane sys- 
tem of prison discipline for mature criminals, which posterity 
will develope, and which mil doubtless lead to excellent re- 
sults. 

Religious services are regularly conducted on the Sabbath 
by a Protestant and by a Roman Catholic chaplain. 




THE NEW YORK ALMSHOUSE 



The paupers of Manhattan were long maintained by a 
weekly pittance granted by the authorities, in compliance with 
a law passed in 1699. The first public Almshouse, the need 
of which had long been felt, was erected in 1734, and stood 
on the northwestern extremity of what was long known as 
" the commons," on the site of the present New York Court- 
house. It was a two-story wooden structure 46 by 24 feet, 
with cellar, and was furnished with spinning wheels, shoe- 
maker's tools, and other implements of labor. The church 
wardens w'ere appointed overseers of the poor with authority 
to require labor of all paupers under penalty of moderate cor- 
rection. The establishment contained a school for children, 
and was also a house of correction where masters were al- 
lowed to send unruly slaves for punishment. In 1795, a 
lottery of £10,000 was granted for the erection of a new build- 
ing. A fine brick edifice, which was destroyed by fire in 
1854, was accordingly erected on the site of the old building. 
After the location of the City Hall \vas agreed upon, the 
authorities resolved to remove the Almshouse. A tract of 
land on the East river, at the foot of Twenty-sixth street, was 
purchased, and the corner stone of the new Almshouse laid 



THE HOSPITALS OF BLACK-VVELl's ISLAND. 537 

August 1, 1811. This edifice was of blnestone, with a front 
325 feet, and two wings of 150 feet each, and was opened 
for inmates April 22, 1816. The Ahns House was for many- 
years under the management of five commissioners, appointed 
by the Common Council ; in 1845 it was placed under the 
control of one commissioner; in 1840 the " Ten Governor" 
system was introduced ; and in 1859 the number was changed 
to four, to be appointed by the Comptroller of the City, re- 
presenting the different political parties. The new charter 
of 1870 "has changed the number of the commissioners to 
five. The buildings at Bellevue became too small, and as they 
were not suitably arranged for the different classes of inmates, 
the authorities in 1834 or 1835, erected extensive buildings a 
short distance south of Astoria, to which the children were 
transferred. These buildings consisted of a boys', a girls', and 
an infant " Nursery," and of appropriate school buildings, 
and were sold at public auction April 15, 1847. In 1828, 
Blackwell's Island was purchased by the City, and Randall's 
Island in 1835. In 1847, ship-fever prevailed frightfully 
among the Almshouse population at Bellevue, producing 
great mortality. Some persons entered the clerk's ofiice and 
fell dead while their names were being registered. The new 
buildings now in use on Blackwell's Island were erected in 
1847, and the inmates removed to them in the spring of 1848. 
The Almshouse department occupies the central portion of the 
island, and is presided over by a separate warden, who resides 
in the cosy wood cottage for a long period the mansion of the 
Blackwell's family, and said to be more than a hundred years 
old. The buildings erected in 1847 are of stone, and con- 
sist of two separate and similar structures, 650 feet apart, 
are entirely distinct in their arrangement, and each devoted 
to one sex only. They each consist of a central four-story 50 
feet square, 57 feet high to the roof, and 87 to the top of the 
cupola, with two wings, each 60 by 90 feet, and 40 feet high. 
Each floor is encircled with an outside iron veranda with stair- 
ways of the same material. These buildings comfortably ac- 
commodate about six hundred persons each, adults only be- 
ing admitted. 

They are always tolerably well filled, though the great 
pressure is in mid-winter, and, on one occasion, eighteen hun- 
dred were huddled within these walls. No one can visit the 
New York Almshouse without being surprised with its ex- 
<j»>site neatness, and the perfect discipline and regularity that 



538 NEW TOKK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS. 

reign everywhere through the buildings and grounds. The 
warden, Mr. James Owens, with no paid help except his clerk 
and the matrons, has for a number of years conducted this 
Institution, filled with ten or fifteen hundred aged, blind, and 
infirm persons, with an economy and skill deserving of spe- 
cial mention. The floors and walls throughout are as clean 
as soap, sand, and lime can make them. The beds are better 
kept than in our first-class hotels. Every morning they are 
all taken to pieces, the ticks and the bedsteads thoroughly 
brushed, after which they are readjusted and covered with a 
white counterpane. This simple process of brushing has pre- 
served the Institution for years from all attacks of vermin. 
Not an empty garment can be found lying or hanging in one 
of the wards. The food which is ample and nutritious, is 
regularly and neatly served. But, inviting as are the build- 
ings, the grounds are still more attractive. The walks have 
all been neatly covered with fiag-stones or gravel ; the flower 
and vegetable gardens, and the lawns with their thrifty trees, 
exhibit much taste and cultivation. Not a straw can be 
found on one of the walks or the carriage-ways, on every one 
of which may daily be seen the marks of the broom. The 
Almshouses were formerly the refuge of imbeciles, lunatics, 
and of able-bodied vagrants, as well as of the old and infirm. 
The former are now provided for in the Lunatic Asylum, and 
the latter very properly sent to the Workhouse. On the ar- 
rival of an inmate, he is immediately subjected to a bath, is 
warmly clad in new garments, after which he is conveyed to 
the Warden's office and formally admitted. He then under- 
goes an examination by the House Physician, from whom he 
receives a card, stating the ward and class to which he belongs. 
They are divided into four classes as follows : 1. Able bodied 
men. 2. Able to perform light labor, and serve as orderlies 
of the different wards. 3. Able to sweep the grounds or 
break stones. 4. Exempt on account of disease or old age. 
Some exhibit a willingness to perform all they are able, and 
othei-s, addicted to idleness, are ready to evade toil with every 
pretext. It is the duty of the Physician to discriminate be- 
tween them, and those assigned to light toil are compelled to 
submit on pain of being discharged. This admirable system 
of classification, introduced by the Commissioners, has saved 
the corporation from supporting armies of able bodied va- 
grants, and made the Almshouse population about fifty per 
cent, less than it was twenty years ago. 



THE NEW YORK ALMSHOUSE 



580 



In 1850 there were in the Ahnshouse 1,313 persons, or 
one in 423 of the population. In 1860 there were 1,631 or 
one in 432 of the population. In 1870 there were 1,114, or 
one in SOS of the population. The number able to perform 
service among the females is much less than among the oppo- 
site sex. From these are selected the nurses, who keep the 
wards in order, and care for the old and feeble. The remain- 
der partially demented, crippled, weakened from disease or in- 
firmity, still render such assistance as they are able in sewing 




KEEPER'S HOUSE. 



and knitting. Daring the year closing January 1, 1870, there 
were 4,053 jiersons in the Institutions, of whom 2,979 were 
admitted, 1,696 discharged, 1,222 transferred to other insti- 
tutions, 21 died, and 1,114 remained. Of the 2,979 admitted, 
363 were Americans, 2,067 Irish, 260 Germans, 163 English ; 
the remaining 111 came from Scotland, Canada, and other 
countries. They are admitted at all ages, from fifteen years 
and upwards. Of the 2,979 admitted last year, 46 were 
under twenty years, 437 between twenty and thirty, 435 
between thirty and forty, 507 between forty and fifty, 569 
between fifty and sixty, 609 between sixty and seventy, 276 
between seventy and eighty, 86 between eighty and ninety, 
13 were over ninety, and 1 over one hundred years of age. 



540 ^^:w york and its institutions. 

At least seven-eighths of all thus thrown upon the charity of 
the city are of foreign birth, and most of the remainder re- 
duced to pauperism by idleness or dissipation. Two wards 
in the building appropriated to the males, and two in the 
huilding for the females, are set apart for the indigent blind, 
who are sufficiently numerous to require an annual appropri- 
ation of $25,000 or $30,000 from the Legislature. The Alms- 
house buildings are valued at $434,500 exclusive of furni- 
ture and grounds. 

On these grounds are situated also the Hospitals for Incura- 
bles. These consist of two one-story wooden pavilions, 175 
feet long and 25 feet wide, one of which is devoted to each 
of the sexes. The inmates are persons afflicted with incurable 
diseases, but such as require no medical treatment. 

In addition to the regular Almshouse accommodations, the 
Commissioners many years ago established a Bureau for the 
relief of the out-door poor, which has long been managRd by 
an experienced and discreet superintendent (Mr. George 
Kellock). Until 1867, it was the practice of the Commis- 
sioners to appoint several temporary visitors at the approach 
of winter, to assist the superintendent in examining the con- 
dition of those applying for relief during the cold season. 
But it was found that from inexperience or indifference the 
-work was so poorly performed, that the city was divided into 
six, and afterwards into eleven districts, to each of which a 
visitor w^as assigned, who not only visits each applicant at his 
home, but investigates the causes of pauperism, sickness, and 
crime, in their res])ective districts, and reports the same to the 
superintendent. During 1869, the number of families re- 
lieved with money amounted to 5,275, with fuel 7,555. 
More than $128,000 were disbursed through this branch of 
our public charities alone. 

The Commissioners have felt the necessity of providing a 
temporary shelter for the houseless poor, and have repeatedly 
appealed to the Legislature fgr authority to lease houses for 
that purpose. To prevent serious suffering among a class of 
poor but reputable persons, who from various reasons might 
be deprived of home, the board, in 1866, fitted up a portion 
of a prison tlien unoccupied as a temporary lodging-house. 
Over two thousand were thus lodged during the winter. 
Each applicant was questioned, to prevent abuse, and gave 
satisfactory reasons for destitution. None were admitted 
who were intoxicated, and in but few instances any who ap. 



THE NEW YORK WOEKHOUSE. 541 

plied the second time. The necessity of restoring the prison 
to its original use discontinued for the time this arrangement. 

The superintendent of out-door poor has his headquarters 
in the central office of the Commissioners, in the new and 
beautiful building corner of Eleventh street and Third ave- 
nue. Here the Commissioners hold their regular business 
meetings, and preserve the archives of the department. 

The New York Alms House, for order, neatness, discipline, 
the general care and comfort of its inmates, compares favor- 
ably with any institution of its kind in this or any other coun- 
try ; and the other outside arrangements for the relief of the 
•destitute and the sick, are confessedly administered with 
marked discretion, and are every way worthy of the great 
metropolis. 



THE NEW YORK WORKHOUSE. 



jOR the proper administration of punitive justice, 
'a variety of institutions are required. Hence, we 
<4^^ have the State Prison, for the long confinement of 
pei-sons guilty of the higher crimes ; the County Jail 
or the Penitentiary for criminals not yet as deeply depraved 
as the preceding ; the House of Refuge, or the Juvenile Asy- 
lum for vicious, truant, and vagrant youth ; and to these 
the authorities of New York have added the Workhouse, 
for vagrant and dissipated adults. The building is situated 
on Blackwell's Island, between the Almshouse department 
and that devoted to the Lunatic Asylum. The first effectual 
step taken for establishment of this Institution, was at a 
meeting of the Board of Aldermen June 26, 1848, when 
Clarkson Crolius presented an able communication on the 
subject, which was referred to a special committee of three. 
The board of Assistant Aldermen also appointed a commit- 
tee to assist in the deliberations. On the 12th of February, 
1849, the committee presented a voluminous report in favor 
of establishing the "Workhouse. On the recommendation of 
the Common Council, the Legislature passed the act for its 
establishment April 11, 1849, and the department was duly 



.042 NEW YORK AKD ITS INSTITUTIONS. 

organized during the following summer, the first commitment 
to it from the court occurring June 14, 1849. The original 
act contained no provision for buildings, and the inmates- 
were for some time boarded at the Almshouse. The cor- 
ner stone of the edifice was laid November 2, 1850, by 
Mayor Woodhull, and the building completed several years 
afterwards under the administration of the Ten Governors. 
The surface around it, now so smooth, was originally exceed- 
ingly broken, and more than a thousand cubic yards of rock 
were removed in preparing the site for the southern wing. 
The edifice is a vast longitudinal structure, consisting of a 
northern and a southern wing, with a large four-story cen- 
tral portion, and a traverse section containing work-shops ex- 
tending across the end of each wing. The edifice is con- 
structed in part of hewn stone, and partly of rubble masonry. 
The entire length is 680 feet, or more than one-eighth of a 
mile. The expense of its erection was at first estimated at 
$75,000, as much convict help was employed, though a larger 
sum was required to complete it. 

The central building contains the kitchen, store-rooms, offi- 
ces, private apai-tments for the superintendent and others, 
and a spacious and elegant chapel, in which service is statedly 
conducted by the chaplains. 

The long wings consist of a broad hall, skirted on either 
side with a succession of cells and sleeping apartments, which 
rise three stories high, fronted with iron corridors and stair- 
ways. Each wing contains 150 of these cells, which are 
wide, containing iour single berths each, with grated doors, 
and are separated from each other by brick walls. The 
building is well arranged and well ventilated. One hun- 
dred and fifty lunatics have for some time been domiciled 
here, awaiting the completion of the new asylum on Ward's 
Island. The original intention of the building was mot 
wholly for a house of correction, but an Institution in which 
the poor, unable to obtain employment, might be committed, 
and be, both to themselves and the authorities, profitably em- 
ployed. As an industrial Institution for the virtuous poor, 
it has not succeeded, and is now devoted entirely to the 
vagrant, dissipated, and disorderly classes, who are committed 
by the police courts for terms of service, ranging from ten 
days to six months each. The larger number of commit- 
ments are for intoxication. It is mandatory on the magis- 
trates to impose a fine on persons convicted of intoxication. 



THE NEW YORK WOEKHOUSE. 543 

and in default of payment to commit them to the "Work- 
house. The larger portion remain but ten days, but many 
are committed over and over again for the same offence, 
called by the clerks "repeaters," having served twenty or 
thirty terms for drunkenness. The warden has recommended 
a change of the law, so that habitual drunkards should be 
committed for from six to twelve months, giving small wages 
to the more industrious. He believes that with an army of 
permanent laborers, large contracts might safely be made, se- 
curing a much larger income to the Institution, and the long 
confinement a permanent benefit to the convicts. 

The men are kept at work breaking stones, grading, build- 
ing sea-walls, cultivating the grounds, etc. The carpenters 
make the coffins for the various institutions, make and repair 
wheel-barrows, and carts, and toil in the erection of new 
buildings. Blacksmiths, tinsmiths, and tailors are employed 
at the "respective trades. Companies of laborers are dis- 
patched daily to toil on the neighboring islands. The women 
are detailed to toil in the numerous institutions, and are kept 
busy making and mending the garments of this immense 
population, and in knitting their stockings. From 15,000 to 
20,000 of these convicts are annually received and again dis- 
charged, costing the public fi'om $50,000 to $60,000 more 
than they are made to earn. But few of them are of Amer- 
ican birth, Ireland, as usual, contributing tbe larger number, 
and Germany the next largest. If New York were purged 
of these dregs of European society, and her liquor traffic sup- 
pressed, there would be no need of this ponderous and ex- 
pensive Institution. But as the tide of emigration is likely 
to still roll heavily upon our shores* and the legislation of the 
State to favor the rum traffic, there is little hope that the 
Workhouse will be deserted for many years to come. The 
establishment of this Institution has had a wholesome effect 
on the Almshouse population, as seventy persons were known 
tx) leave the Almshouse on the organization of this depart- 
ment. Many hundreds more, during the last twenty years, 
would, no doubt, have pressed their suits at the Almshouse 
if it had not been for its next door neighbor, the Workhouse, 
to which they were certain to be consigned. 

The Labor Bueeau, though not specially connected with 
the foregoing, we still notice nere as a matter of convenience. 
A much larger number of unskilled laborers than can find 
employment during the winter months are always in New 



544: NEW TOEK AXD ITS INSTITUTIONS. 

York city, and naturally fall a burden upon our private and 
public charities. The Commissioners, after duly considering- 
this subject, resolved to establish a Bureau in July, 1868, to 
facilitate the transfer of unemployed laborers to other parts 
of the country needing their services. The Bureau was 
opened at the central ofhce of the Commissioners, under the 
direction of the superintendent of Out-Door Poor, and the 
plan of its operations published in several leading papers of 
the country. It was proposed that employers should make 
application, setting forth the number of persons they required, 
the kinds of work to be performed, and the rate of wages to 
be paid, the application to be accompanied with a remittance 
sufficient to cover the travelling expenses of the laborers. 
The applications received did not offer sufficient compensa- 
tion to laborers, and as none of them contained the money to 
defray the expenses of travel, the scheme failed. But the 
leading thought had been produced, and the next Legislature 
made an appropriation for a Labor and Intelligence Office. 
This was opened June 15, 1 869, and from that date to Janu- 
ary 1, 1870, there were 6,670 male applicants for emplojTuent, 
11,813 females, and situations were obtained for 3,965 males, 
and 11,013 females. The labor of this office constantly in- 
creases and its success is very gratifying. 




NEW YORK CITY LUNATIC ASYLUM. 



In the year 1826, separate wards were set apart in the Belle- 
vue establishment, for the accommodation and treatment of 
the insane paupers and patients. Tlie large Institution on 
Blackwell's Island devoted to this use was begun in the spring 
of .1835, the western wing of which was completed in 1839, and 
the southern in 1848. The building is of stone, and consists 
of a central structure, octagonal in form, eighty feet in diam- 
eter, and fifty feet high, with spiral stairways rising to the 
cupola, a spacious and splendid f)bservatory, overlooking 
the river, the island, and a ]X)rtion of Long Island, and New 
York. The two wings, at right angles to each other, are each 
245 feet long, and several stories high. The building at the 
time of its erection was one of the finest of its kind in the 
country, with acconnnodations for over 200 patients. A 
short distance from the main building, on the eastward side 
of the island, was also erected in 1848, another sttnie edifice 
60 by 90 feet and four stories high, which has been exclu- 
sively devoted to the more violent class, and denominated 
" The Lodge." This has rooms for 100 patients. Another 
stone structure called " The Retreat," is devoted to the quiet 



546 NEW YORK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS. 

class, with rooms for 110 persons, and numerous wooden ones, 
*' pavilions," have since been added, literally dotting the 
northern extremity of the island. The capacity of all these 
buildings is sufficient for 576 patients. The locality is un- 
surpassed for its salubrity, and the exquisite beauty of its 
scenery, as nature and art appear to have sweetly blended 
their gifts and embellishments, to render this home of the ir- 
rational one of the most attractive spots of the world. Be- 
fore the erection of these buildings, more than four thousand 
insane persons had been received, and from 400 to 800 have 
been annually admitted during the last twent;^ years. At 
the commencement of 1847, with accommodations for but 
200 patients, nearly four hundred were crowded into the Asy- 
lum, destroying all plans of classification, and proving a 
source of constant irritation to each other. In no period in 
the history of this Institution, have the accommodations been 
fully adequate to the wants of this large and ever-increasing 
class of sufferers. The Commissioners have never been en- 
couraged nor allowed to increase the accommodations, until 
the over-crowding of the Institution has made it a matter of 
positive necessity. And it is an anomalous fact, that while 
every benevolent heart has throbbed over the woes of the 
aged, the crippled, the orphan, the dumb, and the blind, al- 
most nothing has been attempted in the line of private charity 
for the relief of the insane, ten or fifteen hundred of whom 
now evidently exist in the county of New York, beyond what 
can be properly treated in existing Institutions. 

A larger percentage of those admitted would have doubt- 
less recovered if suitable space had been provided. The 
sensibilities of an insane patient are generally extremely acute, 
and the will often intensely perverse. His future character, 
even if incurable, depends largely on the treatment lie 
receives during the first few months of his insanity. Harsh 
treatment, or excessive annoyance occasioned by discomforts, 
usually render him noisy and intractable ; while pleasant 
surroundings, with government which wisely blends fii-mness 
and gentleness, exert a soothing and healthful influence upon 
him. Comparative solitude is often desirable, and essential to 
the recovery of a patient ; but this is unknown in a crowded 
institution. The blame of failure can neither be charged 
upon physicians nor Commissioners, until adequate means are 
granted, thus securing accommodations and appliances for 
the successful conduct of an Institution. In their report of 



NEW YORK CITY LUNATIC ASYLUM. 547 

1868, the Commissioners presented a detailed statement of 
the capacity of the buildings constituting the Lunatic Asy- 
lum. This was stated to be snfiicient for 576 patients, but 
no less than 1,035 were in custody at that time, and the year 
1869 closed with 1,181, of whom 150 were lodged in the 
Workhouse. Having received the requisite authority from 
the Legislatui'e, the Commissioners have just completed the 
erection of a new Asylum building on Ward's Island, a few 
hundred yards west of the Inebriate Asylum. The edifice, a 
three-story English Gothic, with Mansard roof, was constructed 
of brick and "Ohio free-stone. The central section and two 
wings present an imposing front of 475 feet, with accommo- 
dations for 500 patients. It has cost in its erection $700,000. 
This building, which may still be indefinitely enlarged, con- 
tains eveiy improvement yet devised for the safety and coni- 
fo]"t of the insane, and will no doubt be a credit to the 
metropolis. But as over 1,300 patients were committed to 
the care of the Commissioners during 1870, they still need 
another Institution. In the early history of the Asylum, 
convicts from the Penitentiary were largely employed in 
taking charge of the lunatics. A violent prejudice naturally 
arose against this class of nurses, both among the patients 
and their friends, which very seriously detracted from the 
success of the Institution. It was difficult convincing the 
insane that they were not in prison when constantly sur- 
rounded by convicts. But it was found that for the restora- 
tion of reason, the ministries of persons eminent for their in- 
telligence and goodness were required, and not of those whoso 
whole career had shown an abandonment of the very quality 
they were now employed to restore. In 1849, the power to 
appoint and remove attendants was vested in the physician, 
from which period there has been a steady advancement in 
the management of the Institution. In 1850, a night watch- 
man was appointed ; the Croton water was introduced ; 
knives and forks, and various other articles of comfort were 
supplied in the halls ; and hired attendants substituted for 
convicts in most of the departments. The halls were many 
years without lights, and the inmates compelled to retire early 
or spend their evenings in the dark ; but in 1868, oil lamps 
were introduced, which have since been displaced by gas 
fixtures, marking an important change in the histoiy of the 
Institution. In the early years of the Asylum scurvy f i-e- 
quently prevailed, adding greatly to the mortality of the 



548 NEW YOKE AND ITS INSTITUTIONS. 

inmates. With the abundant supply of fresh vegetables and 
other dietary and sanitary regulations, this form of disease lias 
now almost entirely disappeared. During 1868, eight deaths 
occurred from scorbutic difficulties, and in 1869 but one. 

The rate of mortality in 1847 amounted to 19 percent. ; in 
1848 to 13 per cent; in 1849 cholera prevailed in the Insti- 
tution, and over 23 per cent, of the inmates died. In 1868, 
the death rate was 8^ per cent., and in 1869, but 7 per cent. 
In the autumn of 1864, typhus fever appeared in the Asylum, 
which caused the death of the chief physician, and of many 
subordinate officers and some of the inmates. The number 
of recoveries are usually reported in Institutions of this kind, 
though it is a matter very difficult to correctly ascertain. Of 
the 905 treated during 1852, 208 were discharged " recov- 
ered," 90 " improved," and ten " unimproved." The number 
reported " cured " amounted at that time to 23 per cent, of 
the number under treatment. In 1868 the cured amounted 
to 31^ per cent, of all under treatment, and in 1869 to 27 
per cent. The smaller percentage of cases during the last 
year was caused by the over-crowding of the Asylum, and the 
necessity of dismissing many as " improved " who would soon 
have been pronounced " cured," if space had allowed them 
to remain. 

A very large proportion of those admitted into the Institu- 
tion are in a diseased or debilitated condition. Some have 
organic diseases of the lungs, others are epileptic, or an- 
aemic. As they are usually unwilling to submit to thorough 
examination and treatment, the acumen and skill of the med- 
ical attendants are often severely taxed. Careful medical 
treatment is administered in all such cases, and a history of 
the treatment of each case written in a book and preserved. 
But having counteracted with medicine manifest physical 
disease, the treatment becomes simply moral. The patients 
are classified according to the nature of their disease and 
their susceptibilities. Appropriate employment is provided 
for those who have sufficient strength, and can be induced to 
labor with their hands, mental toil for others, and sufficient 
recreation and sources of amusement for all. A large 
amount of labor is annually performed by these persons. 
The men toil at building sea-wall, assist in the erection of 
buildings, follow their respective trades in the shops, and are 
made generally useful around the grounds. The women are 
no less useful. The report of the matron shows that during 



IfEW YORK CITY LUNATIC ASYLUM. 549 

1869, 5,501 articles of bedding and clothing were made by 
them, and 3,208 articles repaired. Somewoi'k at embroidery, 
and in the preparation of fancy articles for the benefit of the 
" Amusement Fund " of the Institution. Some sort of gen- 
eral amusement is now provided once each week to which 
the more ordei-ly class are invited. These consist of stereo- 
scopic views, readings, lectures, and musical entertainments. 
Concerts of sacred and secular music are often held. Ijooks 
and the periodicals of the day are furnislicd to those who 
have any inclination to read. Some volumes are worn out 
with constant reading. But the most acceptable amusement 
to the great mass of patients is said to be dancing. A num- 
ber of those most likely to be benefited by the exercise are 
assembled weekly in the gymnasium, and spend the evening 
dancing, which appears to be enjoyed by those who look on 
as much as by those who participate. The holidays are 
made seasons of rich and varied entertainment to those sufH- 
ciently quiet and thoughtful to enjoy them. 

WMle the difi'erent foj-ms of insanity present a subject of 
profoundest study, the various and often changing halluci- 
nations, coupled with the freaks and idiosyncrasies of the 
individual sufferers, afford matters of lively amusement. On 
the return of reason, some aMake as from a Eip Van Winkle 
sleep, to finish the conversation or complete the task that 
occupied them many years before, when they were plunged 
into insanity. Some during their mental disorders are trans- 
ported to higher planes of thought, and are gifted with a 
power of conception, and a skillfulness of utterance, hitherto 
unknown. 

They declaim with great ability on profound subjects, and 
quote from memory whole chapters of standard works, which 
had been long forgotten. In this state of mind they compose 
poetry, and various other contributions for the press. The 
most amusing freaks occur among those suffering under 
what is termed jy^^lf^ct mania. With these all power of 
correct reasoning is suspended — one hallucination possessing 
the whole mind, though a hundred arguments lie all around 
to convince to the contrar3^ Dr. Rush mentions a man who 
persisted that he had a Caffre in his stomach, m'Iio had got 
into it at the Cape of Good Hope, and all the world could not 
convince him to the contrary. \. maniac during the French 
Revolution insisted that he had been guillotined — that after 
his execution the judges had ordered him restored, and that 



550 NEW YOKE AND ITS INSTITUTIONS. 

the clumsy executioner had placed the wrong head on him^ 
whicli he had worn ever since. We saw a fine looking man 
at this Asylum who believed himself Jesus Christ, and was 
ingeniously inventing a language to address the world. 
Some believe tliemselves kings, queens, or angels ; to be the 
Father of Light, the queen of heaven, the Virgin Mary, or the 
sister of Jesus. Inflated with such lofty conceptions they not 
infrequently remain speechless for months, counting it a dis- 
grace to stoop to common mortals. "We heard a friend describe 
an insane lady who for many mouths fancied herself a china 
teapot. She would sit for hours each day with her left hand 
resting on her hip, the arm bowed a little behind her to 
represent the handle, while the right arm she held 'upward in 
the opposite direction, to represent tlie spout. During all those 
weary months she suffered indescribable fear, lest some un- 
wieldy foot should kick her ovei- and she be broken to pieces. 

As in the Almshouse and Penitentiary, most of the inmates 
are of foreign blood. Of the 680 admitted in 1869, only 
157 were born in the United States, 308 came from Ireland, 
156 from Germany, and 17 from" England. Of the same 
class we notice that 375 were Roman Catholics, 206 Protes- 
tants, 27 Jews ; the faith of the remaining 72 was unknown. 
Of these 284 were married, 267 single, and 46 widows. 
Of the 680 admitted 298 were males, and 382 females. 210 
were between the ages of thirty and forty, 184 between 
twenty and thirty, 129 between forty and fifty, 30 were under 
twenty and 9 over seventy years of age. 

The net expenditures of the Institution during 1869 were 
$128,780.59 or a trifle more than twenty-eight cents 
per day for each inmate. The expenses of 1870 exceeded 
$152,278.75. 

The medical board is composed of cultivated physicians 
who with the accommodations now provided are certain to 
make the Asylum take rank among the noblest public chari- 
ties of the world. 




CHAPTER VII. 
INSTITUTIONS OF WARD'S ISLAND. 



COMMISSIOXERS OF EMIGRATIOX. 

^ The Board of Commissioners of Emigration consisting of 
six citizens of the State of New York, appointed by the Gov- 
ernor with the consent of the Senate, to which are added 
as ex-ojjicio members, the Mayors of New York and Brooklyn, 
the Presidents of the German Society and of the Irish Emi- 
grant Society, was lirst organized May 5tli, 1847. The Legis- 
lature has at different times enhirged and modified its powers. 
The Commissioners are charged with the reception of all 
immigrants landing at New York, their protection from 
swindlers, and also'the protection of the State from financial 
burdens in consequence of their arrival. 

The Act of xVpril 11th, TS-18, requires each member of the 
Commission to annually depose before a proper magistrate 
that he has not directly or indirectlv been interested'in the 



552 NEW YORK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS. 

business of boarding immigrants, or in their transportation to 
any part of the country, that he has received no proht or ad- 
vantage through the purchase of supplies, granting of con- 
tracts, licenses, or privileges, the employment of officers, 
agents, etc. Hence the Commissioners not only serve with- 
out salary, but are so hemmed in by legislation that no out- 
side " advantage" can be secured without perjury. 

In 1855, the' Commissioners leased Castle Garden, for the 
general landing depot of inunigrants. This occupies the 
extreme southern point of Manhattan Island. 

In May, 1807, this site was by the city ceded to the United 
States government for the erection of a fortification, but after 
the " Battery " had been erected, it was found that the 
foundations were not sufiiciently strong for heavy ordnance, 
and it was reconveyed to the Corporation by Act of Congress 
passed March 30th, 1822. The building was subsequently 
used for the public reception of distinguished strangers, and 
for concerts, operas, public meetings, the annual fairs of the 
American Institute, and similai- purposes, until leased by the 
Commission. The total number of passengers landed at 
New York during the year 1869 amounted to 307,454, of 
whom 48,465 were citizens, and 258,989 aliens. Of these 
257,188 stepped on shore at Castle Garden. The arrivals 
during ;L870 were considerably less, in consequence of the 
European war, amounting to 255,485, of whom 72,356 were 
from Germany, 65,168 from Ireland, and 33,340 from Eng- 
land. Over five-sevenths of all the immigrants entering the 
country land at New York. On the arrival of a vessel con- 
taining immigrants at the Quarantine Station (six miles 
below the city), it is visited by an ofticer of the Boarding 
Department, who ascertains the number of passengers, the 
deaths if any during the voyage, the amount and character of 
the sickness on board, the condition of the vessel in respect 
to cleanliness, etc. lie also receives complaints, of which he 
makes report to the General Agent and Superintendent at 
Castle Garden. This officer remains on board the ship 
during her passage up the Bay, to see that the law prohibiting 
communication between ship and shore before immigrant 
passengers are landed is enforced. On casting anchor con- 
venient to the landing depot he is relieved by an officer of the- 
Metropolitan Police force, and the passengers are transferred 
to the Landing Department. The Landing Agent, accom- 
panied by an Inspector of Customs, next proceeds to the 



C0M:snSSI0NEE3 OF EmOKATION-. 553 

.vessel, where the baggage is examined, checked, and with 
the passengers transferred by barges to the Castle Garden 
pier. 

Here the passengers nnder^o another thorough examination 
by a medical officer, to see it any have escaped the notice of 
the Health authorities at Quarantine, and if so, they are 
immediately transferred by a steamer to the Hospitals on 
Ward's or Blackwell's Island. 

He" also selects all blind persons, cripples, lunatics, or 
others Jikely to become a future charge, and who by law 
are subject to special bonds. 

After this examination is passed, the immigrants are con- 
ducted to the Kotunda, a large roofed circular space in the 
centre of the Depot, with separate compartments for the dif- 
ferent nationalities. Here the name, nationality, former 
place of residence, and intended destination of each, with 
other particulars, are taken down. 

Agents of the railroads are admitted, from whom tickets 
are procured to all parts of the country, also exchange 
brokers, who buy their foreign money.' Boarding-hovise 
keepers of good character and licensed by the Mayor, are ad- 
mitted to the Rotunda. All these persons are under the 
scrutiny of the Connnission, rendering extortion nearly im- 
possible. The depot also contains a telegraph office, by 
which the immigrant on landing can communicate with his 
friends in any part of the country without leaving the build- 
ing; also a letter-writing department, with clerks under- 
standing the different continental languages, who assist 
them in conducting their correspondence. A Labor Ex- 
change bureau has recently been added, which during the 
year 1869 furnished employment to 34,955 immigrants free of 
charge. From registered entries made in 1869, of the 
avowed destination of immigrants, the following is a summary : 
85,810 reported their intended destination to be the State of 
New York ; 40,236 to be Pennsylvania and New Jersev ; 
15,613 to be New England ; 10,061 to be the Southern State's ; 
96,646 to be Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, 
Iowa, Minnesota, and California; and 8,822 to be Kansas, 
Nebraska, Canada, &(\ The alien immigration during 1869 
was 45,303 in excess of the previous year, and 75,399 
greater than the average of several former years. In regard 
to the nationality of these arrivals, Germany, Ireland, "and 
England show the same pre-eminence and in the same rela- 



554 NEW YORK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS. 

live order that thev have since 1865, the first named having 
sent, of the number landed in 1869, 99,604, Ireland 66,204, 
and England 41,090, while all other countries contributed 
52,090. 

Arrangements were early made to establish an Emigrant 
Fund, to provide for sick and destitute emigrants untifthcy 
should be able to support themselves, and bj their industry 
add to the general prosperity of the country. A capitation 
tax of two dollars is now collected of each and all landing 
by the Commissioners, one-fifth of which they are required 
to set apart as a separate fund, for the benelit of each and 
every county in the State, except the County of New York, 
to be divided once in three montlis among them according 
to their claims for the relief of disabled immigrants, the re- 
mainder to be used by the Commissioners in the construc- 
tion and improvement of their buildings and grounds. On 
the 25th of May, 1847, the Commissioners leased three large 
buildings near Astoria, formerly occupied as the juvenile 
branch of the Almshouse department of New York, for a 
fever hospital and other purposes, but the inhabitants, in- 
censed at the project, assembled in disguise and destroyed the 
premises on the following evening. In the following De- 
cember, a portion of Ward's Island was leased, and subse- 
quently one hundred and twenty-one acres of it were pur- 
chased, with the whole of the water front toward New York 
City. A hand ferry connects the island with New York at 
One Hundred and Tenth street. About twenty different 
structures have been from time to time erected. Tlie Yer- 
planck State Hospital is the chief building of interest in the 
group. It is constructed of brick, on an approved modern 
plan, and consists of a corridor 450 feet in length and two 
stories high, from which project fi^•e wings, 130 feet long and 
25 wide, each two stories high except the central, which is 
three stories. This building is used exclusively for patients 
sufifering with non-contagious diseases, and surgical cases. 
The corridors afl^ord ample room for the exercise of conva- 
lescent patients. The corners of each wing are surmounted 
with towers containing tanks for water, which is distributed 
to the bath-rooms and closets attached to each ward. Pro- 
jecting from the corridor, in an opposite direction from the 
wings, is a fire-proof building which contains three boilers 
and the engine. A large fan, 14 feet in diameter, drives 
the hot air through 60,000 feet of pipe to all the departments 



COMl\nSSIONEKS OF EMIGRATION. 555 

of the Hospital, and the same power secures a cool current 
through all the sultry season. Adjoining is the cook-room 
with eighteen steam kettles and ranges, where the cooking 
for all the buildings is done. Above is the bakery with four 
ovens, with a capacity each of 300 loaves of bread, also the 
wash-room with sixty-three tubs, and machinery for washing 
and wi'inging the clothing. This Hospital has accommoda- 
tions for 850 patients, and often affords sleeping accommo- 
dations for the Refuge inmates. 

The Eefuge is a brick building three stories, with base- 
ment and three wings, and has accommodations for 450 per- 
sons. The first floor contains the steward's department, with 
store for Island supplies, matron's room, cutting-rooms, and 
sleeping departments. The upper floors are devoted to dor- 
mitories. This building is devoted, as its name indicates, 
to destitute cases, chiefly healthy women and advanced chil- 
dren. 

The Nurserj'-, or Home of the Children, is a three- story 
frame building with Mansard roof, 120 by 90 feet. In the 
basement are the dining, play, and bath-rooms. The first 
floor contains the matron's and the sleeping-rooms. On the 
second are the school-rooms, with evei-y convenience. Their 
instruction is conducted by teachers supplied by the New 
York Board of Education. On the third floor is the Roman 
Catholic Chapel and its ante-rooms, dedicated in 1868, by 
Archbishop McClosky, assisted by a number of his clergy, in 
the presence of the Commissioners and other distinguished 
persons. It is a neat and commodious room with seating for 
500 persons. 

The Protestant Chapel occupies the second floor of a sepa- 
rate brick building, 25 by 125 feet, and in design and finish 
corresponds with the Catholic Chapel. Connected with it is 
a reading-room supplied with a large number of periodicals. 
The first floor of the edifice is used as a medical ward for 
women, and will accommodate forty-five patients. 

The New Barracks consists of a plain brick edifice, with 
three stories and basement, with rear projection for boiler- 
rooms, bath-rooms, etc The building is 160 feet by 44, is 
heated with steam, and contains berths for 450 persons. The 
dining-hall is a separate edifice, 50 feet by 125, with tables for 
the accommodation of 1,200 persons at one time. 

A three-story and basement brick, 25 by 125 feet, is the 
Lunatic Asylum. This is under the direction of the physi- 



556 NEW YORK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS. 

cian-in-cliief, and by him regularly attended. During 1869 
there were 322 of this class under treatment, of whom 116 
were discharged cured or improved ; 21, whose term had ex- 
pired, were transferred to the Blackwell's Island Lunatic 
Asylum, 31 to other wards for other maladies, and 16 died. 
At'this writing it contains "^^ insane women, and 61 men, one- 
half of whom are Irish ; and the others represent nearly all the 
countries of Europe. The present building is entirely in- 
sufficient for the accommodation of this large and rapidly in- 
creasing class, and the Commissioners have set apart $250,000' 
for the erection of a large, and commodious Asylum. 

Besides numerous other buildings, which we have not space 
to describe, we may simply state that the residences of the 
physicians, superintendent, and his deputy are all ample and 
well-furnished, in keeping with their wants and responsibili- 
ties. 

Immigrants having paid their commutation fee are allowed 
to return, in all cases of sickness or destitution, for five years, 
and share without charge the treatment of the Hospital, and 
the comforts of the other Institutions. The farm is culti- 
vated with this emigrant help, and as many as possible are 
made useful on the premises. The buildings form a village, 
surrounded with sloping lawns, fruit and shade trees, gardens 
and fields of high cultivation. In pleasant weather women 
and girls may be seen sitting in groups of fifties in the shade 
of the buildings. A Catholic and a Protestant chaplain hold 
stated services attended bj^ their respective adherents. 

About fourteen thousand are annualh' cared for on the 
Island, the average family amounting to about twelve or four- 
teen hundred. As might be expected, the magnificence of 
this princely system is often imposed upon, both by the 
spendthrift and the miserly immigrant, who returns too fre- 
quently to be clothed and boarded through the winter season 
at the Refuge. Appropriate legislation only can check this 
growing abuse. We turn from tlie review of this interesting 
subject, feeling that the ample reception provided for our 
alien brethren'is sufficiently worthy of our times, and of the 
great city and State whence it emanates. 



& 



THE NEW YORK INEBRIATE ASYLUM. 

J NTEMPERANCE has been for ages the withering- 
•^\)^ cnrse of the race in nearlj^ every part of this world. It 
^I'f'^ lias feasted aUke npon the innoceucy of childhood, the 
^^:^ beanty of yonth, the amiableness of woman, the talents 
of the great, and the experience of age. It has disgraced the 
palace and crown of the prince, the ermine of the jndge, the 
sword of the chieftain, and the miter of the priest. The 
temperance reform, commenced nearly fifty years ago, has 
awakened the public conscience, exposed these frightful dan- 
gers, and called into existence a multitude of agencies seeking 
in various ways the removal of this deadly plague. But 
though multitudes have been saved, the great sea of intem- 
perance has been in no sense diminished, while the adultera- 
tion and drugging of ardent spirits in our day have greatly 
intensified the horrors of dissipation. Intemperance is a dis- 
ease often inherited from ancestors, and otlierwise contracted 
through the criminal indulgence and perversion of the appe- 
tites. The habitual drunkard is a wreck, as completely as the 
idiot or the maniac, and merits confinement and treatment. 
Drunkenness, like insanity, yields ])romptly to treatment in 
its early stages, but after long indulgence becomes well-nigh 
incurable. During the last quarter of a century, many 
humane and thoughtful persons, appalled with the havoc of 
this gigantic evil, have inquired anxiously for some system of 
treatment by which the recovery of. the inebriate might be 
secured. In 1854, the New York Legislature chartered the 
State Inebriate Asylum, which was located on a large farm at 
Binghamton, and lias become, through able management, a 
great and successful institution. One has since sprung up on 
the Pacific slope, and others in different parts of the country. 
In their annual report of 1862, the Commissioners of Chari- 
ties and Corrections recommended to the Legislature the 
establishment of a similar institution in this city. As no 
action was taken by that body in relation to it, the Commis- 
sioners, in their report of 1863, renewed the subject with 
great earnestness and ability. In these appeals they showed 
that multitudes of persons went from the dram-shop to the 
police-station, and from the police courts to the Workhouse,. 



558 NEW YORK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS. 

from whence, after a short stay, they returned to the dram- 
-shop, to run the same round over and over again for years, 
until they at length died on their hands as paupers or crimi- 
nals, and were laid in the Potter's Field. In 18G4, the Legisla- 
ture passed an act authorizing its establishment, and the 
Asylum was begun in 1SG6. The building stands on the east 
side of Ward's Island, on an elevated and beautiful site, which 
•could scarcely be excelled. It was at first proposed to limit 
the size of the edifice to the accommodation of 150 inmates, 
but in view of the necessary outlay for the heating, lighting, 
washing, and cooking apparatus, it was finally decided to add 
two wings to the main structure, apd thus provide accommoda- 
tions for 400 patients. The Asylum is a thi-ee-story brick, 
with a front of 474 feet and a depth of 50 feet, and cost, in 
its original construction, exclusive of furniture, $332,377.08. 
It is one of our best public buildings, and was erected for a 
noble purpose. Croton water is conducted to it thi-ough an 
iron pipe six inches in diameter, laid on the bed of the East 
Hiver from One Hundred and Fourteenth street, which 
-empties into a reservoir ten feet deep, and one hundred feet 
in diameter. 

On the 21st of July, 1868, the Asylum was formally opened 
to the public, with appropriate services, and on the 31st of 
December the resident physician reported 339 admissions. 
During 1869, 1,490 were received, and during 1870, 1,270 
more were admitted. The inmates are divided into several 
classes. The larger number thus far admitted have been 
transferred from the Workhouse, or some of the .other institu- 
tions, and have retui-ned to their vices, for the most part, as 
soon as their terms of commitment have closed. There are 
also three classes of pay patients — one class paying five, 
another ten, another twelve or more dollars per week — which 
are furnished with rooms and board corresponding in style 
with the price paid. Of the 339 admitted during the first six 
months, but 52 were pay patients ; of the 1,490 in 1869, but 147 
contributed anything toward their support ; and of the 1,270 
admitted during the year just closed, but 165 were pay pa- 
tients, 30 of them being females. The rules of the Institu- 
tion were at first exceedingly mild, the patients were relieved 
from all irksome restraints, paroles very, liberally granted, 
and every inmate supposed intent on reformation. But this 
^excessive kindness was subject to such continual abuse, that 



THE NEW YORK INEBRIATE ASYLUM. . 550 

to save the Institution from utter demoralization a stricter 
discipline was verv properly introduced. 

The Asylum is furnished with an excellent library of solid 
standard volumes, with billiard-room, and other forms of 
amusement. It has an immense chapel, in which divine ser- 
vice is regularly conducted. As the inebriate patients have 
not filled the building, the Commissioners have temporarily 
assigned the eastern wing to a class of disabled, indigent sol- 
diers, citizens of New York, who are organized into squads,, 
and perform such light labor as their wounds and infirmities 
will permit. 

Of the success of the New York Inebriate Asylum, it is 
perhaps too early to speak. We could but notice, however, 
the great disparity between the faith of the Commissioners^ 
in their appeals to the Legislature in 18G2-G3, for authority 
to found an asylum, and their report of the same Institution 
in 1869, when they " deemed it their duty to thus frankly 
state their views, that the streams of public beneficence be not 
unduly diverted from objects of great and permanent utility to- 
those the benefits of which, in their opinion, are largely facti- 
tious and imaginary." Tlie resident physician, in his very 
thoughtful and carefully })repared report of the same year, de- 
clared his entire loss of faith in the " voluntary system" gen- 
erally adopted in these asylums, and introduced at the opening 
of the Institution on Ward's Island. Still, the undertaking is 
too important to suppose these gentlemen likely to relinquish, 
their endeavors, or to admit the possibility of ultimate failure. 
This entire scheme for reforming the inebriate is yet in its 
early infancy, and must, like every other system, meet with 
much baffling and difliculty. We think a stricter discipline, 
and more positive self-denial and rigor, would be an improve- 
ment in every inebriate asylum. Children who grow up 
under wise but positive laws exhibit more self-control and 
self-denial all through life, than those who have lived under 
the voluntary system. Inebriates for the most part have 
grown up without restraint, the principles of which they must 
somewhere master, before they can attain to real manhood^ 
and without which they must forever remain in their sunken,, 
enslaved, and demented condition. .And while we regard 
facilities for amusement and pleasure desirable in an institu- 
tion, we still believe labor immensely more likely to contrib- 
ute to one's reformation ; and the more one has been addicted 
to softness and pleasure, in consequence of his wealth, the 



560 NEW YORK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS. 

greater tlie necessity for arduous exercise, whicli shall harden 
ills muscles, invigorate his intellect, and strengthen his will. 
Keformation, when one has been long and wofnlly corrupted, 
is not a holiday recreation, but a manly and deadly struggle, 
taxing to the utmost the finest faculties of the soul. Little 
■can be expected from young men of wealth, who, while they 
voluntarily shut themselves for a time from the intoxicating 
l>owl, live at ease, indulging every other appetite. Their 
refoi-raation is not sufBciently deep and general to resist the 
shock of subsequent temptation. And no more can be hoped 
for those who enter an asylum simply to gratify the wishes of 
friends. These belong to that class who will also enter a 
billiard saloon and a beer garden when invited by an old 
•companion. Still less can be expected from those floating 
human wrecks on the sea of life that drift once a month into 
the Workhouse, for their lewdness and habitual dissipation. 
Coming from the most abandoned classes in the community, 
utterly improvident and reckless, their involuntary abstinence 
for a brief period is likely to be followed by deeper dissipa- 
tion when opportunity offers. The New York Inebriate Asy- 
lum is not to be judged from its fruit in the treatment of 
these. To rescue many of them requires a miracle as great 
as the raising of Lazarus. 

It is conceded that there is no medicine which acts specifi- 
cally in drunkenness. The physician can only assist nature 
in its work of repairing, by slow processes, the ravages dissi- 
pation has made in the system. The appetite must be con- 
quered by voluntary abstinence, which is greatly assisted by 
good society, means of culture, toil, and prayer. The treat- 
ment in an institution of this kind is eminently moral, hence 
too much pains can hardly be taken in the selection of its offi- 
cers. The superintendent, physician, and chaplain ai'e not 
dealing largely with matters of physical science, but with the 
perverseness of the human mind, requiring, besides a knowl- 
edge of the strange contradictions of human nature, a magnetic 
influence calculated to attract and mold. Tlie success of an 
institution depends more upon the men to whom its manage- 
ment is committed than upon the technicalities of the system 
adopted within its walls, its convenience, or its location. 

The principles, practices, and spirit of a genuine heart-piety, 
more than any or all other things combined, give success to 
an inebriate asylum ; and we have known few examples of 
genuine J'eformatioii among inebriates, without a moral regen- 



THE NEW YORK INEBRIATE ASYLUM. 561 

eration. A cliange of life is difficult without a charge of 
heart, but with this it becomes comparati\ely easy. Change 
the fountain, and the bitter water will cease to flow. 

We are thankful that the attention of tlioughtful men 
throughout the civilized world is being concentrated on this 
great problem : how to successfully treat and reform the 
inebriate. It is, indeed, a vital question, involving the hap- 
piness of the individual and the familj-, the wealth of the 
community and the strength of the State. A system based 
on truly scientific and moral principles will certainly be 
evolved sooner or later, and we trust that at no distant day 
the New York Inebriate Asylum will rank among the best of 
its kind in the world. 



CHAPTER YIII. 

INSTITUTIONS OF RANDALL'S ISLAND. 

THE NEW YORK NURSERIES. 

{BandnWs Island.) 

AND ALL'S ISLAND takes its name from Jona- 
than Eandal], who purchased it in 1784, and made it 
M^^fl his home for nearly iifty years. Beginning opposite 

■^ One Ilnndred and Fifteenth street, and extending 
northward to near the Westchester line, it forms the last of 
that group of beautiful islands that adorns the East river, 
and from the uses to which they have been appropriated, 
form a sort of moral rampart to the great metropolis. 
Originally, like all its sister islands, it appeared like one of 
nature's failures, its surface being so largely covered with 
malarious swamps, and. surmounted with hills of granite. It 
was transferred to the city of New York, in 1835, for the sum 
of $50,000. The sites for the present buildings, with their 
handsomely arranged grounds and charming gardens, have 
been prepared at the unavoidable outlay of vast sums. About 
thirty acres of the southern portion are under the control of 
the " Society for the Reformation of Juvenile Delinquents," 
and occupied by the House of Refuge, while the northern, 
and much larger portion, is controlled exclusively by the 
" Commissioners of Charities and Corrections," who have 
here located what they denominate the " Nurseries." These 
form the juvenile branch of the Almshouse department, the 
adults, except such as assist in taking care of the children, 
being provided for and retained on Blackwell's Island. 

The Nurseries consist of three departments, viz. : The build- 
ings for the healthy children, the Infant Hospital, and the 
Idiot Asylum. There are six large buildings for the healthy 
children, several hundred feet apart, grouped together, though 
arranged on no special plan, near the centre of the island. 
They ar-^ constructed of brick, three stories high, some of 
which are furnished with outside corridors, are well arranged 



THE NEW YOKK NUKSERIES. 563 

and kept in a very tidy and inviting condition. An assistant 
matron is placed in charge of each of these bnildings, the 
whole being presided over by a warden and matron. A 
separate building contains the machinery for the washing, 
drying, etc. The inmates of these buildings are children 
over tonr years of age, abandoned by their parents, and taken 
by the police from the public streets, and children whose 
parents for the time are nnable to support them. On arriving 
at the island they are placed in quarantine for several days, 
to guard against the spread of contagious diseases, where they 
are examined dail}'^ by a physician. If diseased they are sent 
to the hospital; if not they are distributed according to their 
age and sex among the other bnildings. It is the aim of the 
Commissioners to make the Nurseries places of but temporary 
sojourn, and to canse their distribution among families as 
early as practicable. To this end parents are notified that no 
child may claim to be retained longer than three months 
nnless its board be paid. If not reclaimed by their friends 
at the expiration or tliat time, the Superintendent of Out- 
Door Poor may apprentice such as are of proper age, or, if 
too young, adopt them into families -vvilling to take, and able 
to support and educate them. This wise regulation prevents 
the overcrowding of the bnildings, and avoids the evils inci- 
dent to massing large numbers of children together throngh 
those tender years when the habits of life are being formed. 
No child in full possession of its faculties is retained after it 
completes its sixteenth year. The grounds adjourning the 
buildings are ample, which at certain hours are made vocal 
by the white-aproned boys who trip and frolic Anth infinite 
merriment. Their diet is ample and nutritious, comprising a 
greater variety than is common in public institutions. The 
children while here receive the same instruction imparted to 
those of a similar age in the city, teachers being supplied by 
the Nev^ York Board of Public Instruction. The numbers 
annually admitted to the Nurseries vary from 1,800 to 3,000, 
according to the severity of the season. A large farm 
stretches over the northern portion of the Island, cultivated 
mainly by men detailed from the Workhouse and Peniten- 
tiary, and which affords most of the vegetables for the Nur- 




THE INFANT HOSPITAL. 



^6R many years the practice of sending fonndlings 
and other infants committed to the Department to 
the Almshouse prevailed, where they were placed in 
charge of the female inmates. The records show that 
the mortality of this unfortunate class during this period 
amounted to the appalling figure of eighty-five or ninety per 
cent., and it is even believed that excepting the few adopted 
none survived the first year. In 1866, the Commissioners 
appointed a matron, and employed paid nurses to take ex- 
clusive charge of the infants, and althougli the mortality 
continued large there was a manifest change for the better. 
The next year wet nurses were transferred from the general 
hospitals to nourish them. Life by this means was so pro- 
longed, and the number so increased that it became necessary 
to convert several wards of the Almshouse into nurseries, 
and on the completion of the Inebriate Asylum, the infants 
were temporarily transferred to that building. The necessity 
of providing a large and w^ell-arranged hospital, devoted 
wholly to this class, had long been felt. Such an edifice was 
begun in 1868, and a portion of it was made ready for the re- 
ception of the nm-ses and children on the 9th of August, 1869. 
The building stands on the western side of Kandall's Island, 
facing northward, is constructed of brick and stone, in the 
most approved style of modern hospital architecture. 

The plan consists of a long, three-story pavilion, with three 
large traverse sections, the eastern one not yet having been 
erected. The oflices and private apartments for the physi- 
cians are located in the northern portion of the central trav- 
erse section, tlie latter being well arranged on the second 
floor. The edifice was erected under the supervision of the 
Medical Board, and contains every facility for light, heat, 
and ventilation. It is at present divided into eighteen wards, 
and has accommodations for 153 adults and 217 children, 
though 260 of the latter class have already been under treat- 
ment in it at one time. The completion of the section yet to 
be added will greatly increase the accommodations. Chil- 
dren are taken as foimdlings, orphans, and are often attended 
by their indigent mothers. They are divided into three 



THE INFAKT HOSPITAL. 565 

classes : the " wee nursed," the " bottle-fed," and the " walk- 
ing-children." Unless reclaimed by their parents, they 
continue in the Hospital until two or tln-ee years old, when 
they are placed in a nurseiy where one nurse can take charge 
and instruct ten or twelve of them. As many wet-nurses as 
possible are obtained, though the supply is never equal to the 
demand. 1,516 infants were under treatment during the 
year closing January 1, 1870, 710 of whom died. Since 
entering the new Hospital, the rate of mortality has been 
greatly lessened. During the five months of 1868 (from 
August to December inclusi^'c), 383 deaths occurred, or 21.10 
per cent, per month of the inmates. During the same period 
in 1869, 156 died, or 10.07 per cent, of the inmates, a de- 
crease of over one-half. The statistics of mortality during 
the whole year of 1870 were 58.99 per cent, of all found- 
lings received, and 15.06 of those received with their mothers. 
The chief physician. Dr. Dunster, believes that the annual 
mortality will be further reduced by the full development of 
the plans of the Commissioners. It is doubtful whether any 
better place for foundlings will be provided among the char- 
ities of New York. 

The nursery population has several times been sadly over- 
taken with epidemics, now believed to have resulted, at least 
in part, from an inadequate supply of good water. This evil 
has now l)een obviated by the laying of more pipe, affording 
an abundant supply of pure Croton. The engine-house, con- 
taining, besides the heating and ventilating apparatus for the 
Hospital, the washing and drying apartm'ents, is situated at 
some distance from the main building. A gas-house for the 
manufacture and supply of this illuminating agent to all 
the buildings stands in the rear of the engine-house. The 
grounds, which slope gracefully to the river, adorned with a 
row of chestnut, hickory, and oak trees, are being nicely 
graded, and will, no doubt, in time be highly ornamental. 
The roads and walks are being built in the most substantial 
manner, on stone foundations, varying from one to two feet 
in thickness, and macadamized. 




THE IDIOT ASYLUM. 



I HIS is, after all, the most curious and interesting In- 
stitution under the control of the Commissioners. 
Idiocy has existed in all ages and countries, but no 
effort appears to have been made for the improve- 
ment of this class until the seventeenth century, and no con- 
siderable progress made in their education until within the last 
fifty years. The present century has, however, witnessed the 
establishment of large institutions for their benefit in France, 
England, Switzerland, and in various parts of the United 
'States. In 1855, the State of New York erected a fine Asy- 
lum at Syracuse, at the expense of nearly $100,000, with ac- 
commodations for one hundred and fifty pupils, which has 
since been generally well-filled. A large number of persons,, 
representing every degree of imbecility, have annually been 
thrown on the care of the Commissioners of Charities and Cor- 
rections, for whom little was done, more than to supply their 
physical wants, until 1866, when, with grave doubts of its 
success as a means of mental development, a school, under 
the direction of Miss Dunphy, was established. It began 
with twenty pupils ; in 1867 it had increased to forty-two ; in 
1868 to over seventy, and at this writing to one hundred. 
The Asylum is a tasty three-story br.ick structure, with 
Avings, well divided into school-rooms, dormitories, refector}^, 
and other appropriate apartments. It contains at present, 
besides oflicers and teachers, 141 persons, whose ages vary 
from six to thirty years, and who represent nearly every 
phase of an enfeebled and disordered brair Here are boys 
of eight years whose enormous heads far outmeasure the 
Websters' and Clays', others of twenty-five with whiskers and 
mustaches, whose skulls are no larger than an ordinary 
infant of ten months. Some are congenital idiots, born to 
this enfeebled state, others have been reduced to it by par- 
oxysms, or other casualties. They are divided into two gen- 
eral classes, the hopelessly imbecile, and those capable of 
some improvement. The forty-one composing the first class 
at present show but transient gleams of thought or under- 
standing, and are lost for the most part in ceaseless inanity. 
They spend much of the time dm'ing the pleasant season 



THE IDIOT ASYLUM. 56 T 

in the play-ground set apart for tliom, a portion of wliicli is 
covered with canvass to screen them from the sun. Those 
admitted to the school enter the primary chiss, from which 
most of them are afterwards advanced to the two higher 
classes. The first lessons taught are cleanliness, order, and 
obedience, of which many of them seem to have no previous 
conceptions. The next consist of color and form. 

Many idiots have an infantile fondness for bright colors, 
hence these afford a medium for instruction. As they have 
no mental control and are destitute of all analytical qualities, 
the common order of teaching must be reversed, hence words 
are taught before the letters. A card containing the words 
" chair," " hand," " book," or " table," printed in large bright 
letters, is held up before them, l)y which means they are at 
length taught the names and definitions of things. The mat- 
ter of speech is often difiicult, as many of them have impedi- 
ments. The success of this scliool during the first four years 
of its history is surprising. The author visited it in 1868, 
and again in 1870. The school at the second visit exhibited 
marked improvement. The scholars were all tidy and 
orderly, their countenances liaving perceptibly brightened. 
We asked them various questions in geography which were 
promptly answered. The advanced class read from the large 
Reader, in a. creditable manner. In singing they almost ex- 
cel, following the instrument with great exactness. Many 
make fine progress in penmanship, and a few stud}^ instru- 
mental music. One of the girls, who began as an ordinary 
pupil four years since, is now a teacher in one of the depart- 
ments. Mathematics are the most difiicult things for them 
to learn, in wdiich they seldom make much progress. A few 
able to pay board have been admitted at the moderate rate 
of eight dollars per month. More of this unfortunate class 
exist in community than is generally supposed, probably 
several to every one thousand of the population. Idiot 
schools are valuable, raising many to thoughts and toil who 
had hitherto been totally neglected, offering also the only test 
by which a proper discrimination can be made between the 
true idiot and persons of feeble mind or of slow and imper- 
fect development. The Commissioners have performed a 
commendable service in the establishment of this school, 
and have been remarkably successful in tlieir selection of 
teachers. 




SOCIETY FOR THE REFORMATION OF JUVENILE DELINQUENTS, 
(BcmdaiPs Island. ) 



lilE House of Refuge, under the control of the " So- 
ciety for the Reformation of Juvenile Delinquents," 
is situated on the southern portion of Randall's Is- 
land, thirty acres of land being connected with the 
Institution. The Society, one of the most beneficent and 
humane in the world, was incorporated in 1824, with power 
of self-perpetuation. Among its managers have ranked 
many of the wisest and purest men of the State, who, with- 
out pecuniary compensation, have devoted a large portion of 
their time to its interests for years, and the records of their 
proceedings for nearly half a century exhibit the most grati- 
fying results. Its first building was erected in Madison 
Square, where it continued fifteen years, until the growing 
city forced the managers to evacuate, when they withdrew 
to Twenty-third street and East river. Here another fifteen 
were spent, until straitened for room, after much search 
and discussion, it was resolved to remove the whole to Ran- 
dall's Island, which was substantially accomplished in 1854. 
Thousands of children in our great cities and towns are con- 
stantly growing up in ignorance and neglect, many homes 
being little less than schools of vice. A consciousness of 
guilt, attended with imprisonment and disgrace, crushes what 
little of self-respect and laudable ambition may yet remain. 
To hurl these truant youth into a penitentiary, filled with ma- 
ture and expert criminals, is but to culti^•ate their treache- 
rous tendencies, and insure their final ruin. This society 
comes at the opportune moment to open the gates of its City 
of Refuge to those youthful unfortunates who are brought 
before the courts for petit offences, and receives them, kot 
for punishment, but for instruction, discipline, and reforma- 
tion. The departments are well arranged and most admira- 
bly conducted, presenting at evei'y turn some striking exam- 
ple of system and tidiness. Visitors are politely received, 
but however distinguished they may be, no change is made 
in the daily routine of the Institution. Everything is on ex- 
hibition in its ordinary field parade. The buildings are of 
brick, constructed on a magnificent scale in the Italian style, 



SOCIETY FOR REFORMATION OF JUVENILE DELINQUENTS. 569 

the two principal structures presenting a graceful fa9ade 
nearly a thousand feet in length, the whole completed at an 
expense of half a million. There are eiglit hundred and 
eighty-six spacious, well-ventilated dormitories, several finely 
arranged and amply furnished school-rooms, appropriate 
hospital departments, dining halls, kitchens, bakeries, laun- 
dries, sewing-rooms, elegant apartments for officers, and a 
model chapel, with seating fOr a thousand persons. In the 
rear stand the workshops, each thirty feet wide by one hun- 
dred and fifty long, and three stories high. The boys and 
girls are kept in separate buildings, their respective yards be- 
ing divided by high walls, and the more advanced of the 
latter, who have been guilty of social crime, are carefully 
separated from the more youthful. Every child upon its ad- 
mission is made to feel that the period of its detention rests 
with itself. Two general rules are at once and always incul- 
cated. First, " Tell no lies." Secondly, " Always do the 
best you can." Every child is compelled to toil from six to 
eight hours every week-day, at some employment suited to its 
capacity, and to stud}" from four to five hours, under compe- 
tent teachers. The labor is designed to tame their fiery, vi- 
cious natures, to quicken attention, and favorably rouse all the 
dormant elements of their being. As moderate stints are in- 
troduced, aftbi-ding opportunity to redeem extra time for 
reading and play, they toil with a cheerfulness and speed 
that is highly exhilarating. Thus sobered and awakened by 
toil, they return to their books, and keep pace with those 
who reside at home and attend the public schools of New 
York. Hundreds of young men and women are at work in 
the city and elsewhere rising to respectability and affluence 
by the steady habits and trades they acquired at the Institu- 
tion, the former earning from twelve to twenty dollars per 
week, and the latter from four to twelve. Four grades of 
conduct have been introduced. Grade 1 is the highest, which 
every child must retain at least six weeks, and attain to the 
third class in school, before any application for indenture 
will be entertained from parents or friends. This grade 
must also be retained for one year, and the studies of the 
highest class mastered before one is discharged, and then a 
situation is provided. Grade 4 is the lowest, and is one of 
disgrace. 

The society opened its first building on New Tear's day, 
182.5, with six wretched girls and three bovs. During the 



570 NEW YORK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS. 

first fifteen years of its operations, it received aud again re- 
turned to society two thousand five hundred. Wlien it re- 
moved to Randall's Island, about six thousand had been 
received, and up to January, 1871, no less than 13,727. An 
average of three hundred per annum have thus been returned 
to the community since the first organization of the society, 
and we are told that at least seventy-five per cent, of them 
have lived honest and useful lives. The good accomplished 
for the country and humanity is incalculable. The sons of 
eminent merchants and lawyers, and of distinguished divines, 
have taken lessons here to theii- lasting advantage ; while not 
a few from the haunts of infamy, who would but for this 
model " Bethesda " have gone frightfully down the slippery 
steeps of crime, have been raised to sit among the princes of 
the land. The sanitary interests of the Institution have al- 
ways been conducted with remarkable success. During the 
first ten years of its history but five deaths occurred, and in 
1832, out of ninety-nine cases of cholera, only two proved 
fatal. The report of 1869 showed, that of the seventeen hun- 
dred and seventy-five different inmates of the year, but three 
had died, and during the year closing 1871, but six died. 
But without the transforming influence of pure Christianity, 
all efi'orts for the reformation of delinquents must prove 
sadly abortive. 

This Institution is, in its faith and practice, eminently 
Protestant, and most of its ofiicers and teacher are persons of 
established Christian character. Rev. B. K. Pierce, D.D., 
the chaplain, a man of rare culture and long experience in 
this difficult work, with quick discernment of character, re- 
markable facility in remembering countenances and names, 
and with' a heart that always bleeds at the woes of a child, is 
admirably fitted for his critical station. Mr. J. C. Jones, the 
successful superintendent, is also a man of more than ordinaiy 
culture and ability. 

Sabbath at the Refuge is a day of delightful, hallowed rest. 
Once on that day all join in Sunday-School study and recita- 
tion, and once they crowd their beautiful chapel, when a thou- 
sand faces are turned toward the man of God, and a thousand 
voices join in liturgical responses. Many have been hopefully 
converted, and several who were once inmates of the Institu- 
tion are now studying for the Christian ministry. 

With the nuiltiplication of reformatory Institutions, and 
some unjust disparagements, a smaller number of youth than 



SOCIETY FOR KEFOKMATION OF JUVENILE DELINQUENTS, 571 

fonnerlv are hciiig received fi'om the New York courts. As 
the sup[)ly is iindirainished, we can but reo:ard this as a public 
mistake. In the matter of economy, the Refuge is conducted 
with remarkable ability. During the last seven years, the 
net cost of each child, above its own earnings, has'but little 
exceeded seventy dc^llars per annum, while the gross cost has 
varied from $116.20 in 1867, to $131.13 in 1870, according 
to the number in the Institution. About twelve thousand 
dollars have, until recently, been annually received from the 
license of theaters. In addition to this, the sums contributed 
from the city treasury and the school fund have, united, been 
annually less than twenty dollars per capita, while the 
Catholic P^-otectory has been paid $110 for each child, and 
the Commissioners of Charities and Corrections have ex- 
pended over one hundred and fifty dollars per amuira on 
each child, in the Industrial school at Hart Island and on the 
school-ship. This comparison speaks volumes in favor of the 
Eef nge, inasmuch as it greatly surpasses both the Institutions 
mentioned in the appliances of personal comfort, while in 
matters of culture, discipline, building up of character, and 
thoroughness of skilled labor, it probably surpasses every In 
Btitntion of its kind in the country. 

The Managers propose, if appropriate legislation can b(v 
secured, to somewhat enlarge their Institution, and receive a 
class of delinquents still more advanced in crime and yeai-s. 
They fully believe that multitudes of young men, who have 
grown up without emitloyment and are sent annually to the 
Penitentiary to be further confirmed in treachery, might in 
a well-conducted reformatory be taught the arts of skilled 
labor, mellowed by the appliances of Christianity, and saved 
for time and eternity. Who with a well-balanced head and 
suitably affected heart can for a moment doubt it ? A society 
so intent on the accomplishment of its great work, and so rich 
in desirable fruits, deserves well of the public, and should not 
be crippled in any of the appliances necessary to its highest 
success it is the pioneer of its kind ; the twenty other simi- 
lar Institutions, with their many thousand inmates in this 
country as well as those of Europe, have grown up throufrh 
its example. Its managers and friends, "in molding their 
economy, have sought to incorporate the lessons they have 
industriously culled from the experience and wisdom of ages. 
Long may it flourish to elevate the fallen and enrich "the 
world. 




CHAPTEE IX. 

INSTITUTIONS ON HART ISLAND. 

THE INDUSTRIAL SCHOOL AND THE SCHOOL-SHIP. 



I HE number of vagrant, vicious, and advenj:urous chil- 
dren around New York is so great, that a new insti- 
tution for their correction and reformation springs up 
every few years, and though thousands are from these 
annually sent to the country, the buildings are always full, and 
the supply well nigh inexhaustible. For years past a class of 
large vicious boys have been thrown on the hands of the Com- 
missioners of Charities and Corrections, for whom it has been 
difficult to well and suitably provide. If sent to the Work- 
house or Penitentiai-y, they would be further steeped in evil, 
and if sent to the Nurseries, their insubordination incited the 
younger and more dutiful to mischief and demoralization. 
Hence, after the purcliase of Hart Island, which occurred in 
May, ] 868, they were placed there in the capacity of an In- 
dustrial School. On this Island the Potter's Field has been 
located, separate sections having been set apart for Catholic 
and Protestant burial. The southern portion, dnring the 
spring and early summer of 1S70, was also set apart for the 
treatment of persons suffering with relapsing fever. The Is- 
land contained at the time of its purchase more than sixty 
buildings of wood, constructed by the United States Govern- 
ment for the use of the soldiers, and said to have cost over 
$200,000. The dilapidated buildings wei-e pulled down, and 
the sound material employed in repairing other buildings. 
Those formerly occupied by the officers of the army and navy 
of the barracks were excellent structures oi their kind, and 
were easily converted to the uses for which they were desired. 
The buildings formerly occupied by the officers are i^ow the 
residences of the warden, matron, teachers, Burgeoi., clerks, 
etc. Others have been changed to school-rooms, dormitories, 
play-rooms, dining-rooms, and two houses for baking and 



THE INDUSTKIAL SCHOOL AND THE SCHOOL-SHIP. 573 

cooking. A large ice-house has beeu erected, capable of cou- 
taiuing a hundred tons of that invaluable antidote to mid- 
summer heats. The school began late in the year 18GS, and 
on the 31st of December, 1869, the warden reported the recep- 
tion of 504 boys. The utter neglect under which they had 
thus far grown up appears in the fact that seventy-five per 
cent, of them could neither read nor write, fifteen per cent, able 
to read only, leaving but ten per cent, in tolerable possession 
of the rudiments of an education. They are kept in school 
five hours per day, devoting the remainder to play or light 
labor. A vigorous system of discipline has been introduced, 
but no very serious corporal punishment is inflicted. During 
the last year, 972 boys were received into the school. . 

Many boys in each generation are wild and adventurous in 
tlieir natures, fond of excitements and dangers, and who will 
not sober down to the quietudes of ordinary industry. Neg- 
lected, they become the roughs, harbor thieves, pirates, and 
fillil)usterers of the world. As early as 1812, Kev. Dr. Stan- 
ford, chaplain of the penal institutions of New York, recom- 
mended the separation of the youthful criminals from those 
more advanced, and urged the importance of training this 
adventurous class in a nautical ship for service on the sea. 
But reforms " hasten slowly," and though a citizen of Man- 
hattan was the first to originate and recommend the plan of 
a training ship, the authorities of New York lingered until 
the experiment had been successfully tried in England and 
in Massachusetts. Under authority conferred by the Legisla- 
ture, the Commissioners, in July, 1869, purchased the sail-ship 
Mercury, formerly belonging to the Havre line of packets, a 
fine vessel of 1,200 tons burden, which they have fitted for 
this service. The vessel is calculated to accommodate 250 or 
300 boys, besides the usual complement of ofiicers and drilled 
sailors. The boys, whose features for the most part show their 
foreign origin and treacherous tendencies, are all clothed in 
bright sailor's uniform, and governed on the apprenticeship 
system of the United States Navy. From the Industrial 
School they are transferred to the school-ship, where a year 
or two of good drilling is expected, to fit the more advanced 
for useful service in the Merchant Marine, or in the United 
States Navy. The vessel has ah-eady made several trips to sea, 
remaining outside the bar on one cruise four months At 
the 1st of January last, 826 boys had been received on board, 
and 565 discharged, many of whom had shipped as sailors in 



574 NEW YOKK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS. 

the United States Navy, and others had entered the Merchants' 
Marine. 

The daily routine adopted in port is as follows : At early 
daylight the reveille is beaten, all hands are called, and ham- 
mocks properly stowed by the Captains of Tops and other 
petty officers, to whom this duty belongs. This done, when 
the weather will permit, the decks are washed down, and if 
" Wash Clothes Day," hammocks and clothing are scrubbed, 
and triced up on the lines, while the boys are compelled to 
cleanse their persons, under the superintendence of the Offi- 
cer of the Deck. At 7.30 a.m., the boys are mustered, the 
line formed, and at 8 a.m., breakfast is piped and the boys 
marched to their respective messes on the berth-deck. This 
is in the charge of the Master at Arms and ship's Corporals, 
whose duty it is to preserve order there at all times. One 
hour is allowed the boys for the morning meal and recreation. 
At 9 A.M., the " hands are turned to," sweepers are piped, and 
the decks cleaned fore and aft. Ten minutes before " Colors," 
the drummer beats their call, hands stand by to lower boats, 
Quartermasters bend on their colors. Coxswains report boats 
ready for lowering, sail loosers are sent aloft, when necessary ; 
lower booms got ready for going out, one hand stationed by 
the bell. At 9 a.m. in winter, at 8 a.m. in summer, the drum- 
mer rolls off, the bell is struck ; at the third roll colors hoisted, 
boats lowered, sails let fall, and booms rigged out, to which 
the boats when lowered are hauled and made fast. The boys 
now take their cleaning stations, warned by the roll of the 
drum of their duties, and polish all bright work fore and aft. 
The ship's company are divided into divisions, called the First; 
Second ; Third, or Master's ; Fourth, or Boatswain's ; Fifth, or 
Powder Division, commanded respectively by the Second and 
Third officers. Sailing Master, Boatswain, and Master-at-Arms. 
At 9.30 A.M., the drummer beats to quarters for inspection, 
allowing the boys three minutes to gain their stations, where 
they are inspected and mustered by their respective officers, 
whose duty it is to see that their persons and clothing are 
clean and in good order, and that all are present to answer 
the muster, being careful to report all delinquents and absen- 
tees to the Executive Officer, who in turn reports to the Cap- 
tain the condition of the ship and the divisions. The " Ee- 
treat " is now beaten, and the Starboard Watch is formed in 
line and marched into the school-room, where they remain at 
their studies in charge of the Instructor until 11.45 a.m., the 



THE INDUSTKIAL SCHOOL AND THE SCHOOL-SHIP. 575 

Port Watch in the meantimo being engaged on deck working 
masts, yards or sails, or drilling with the great guns, small 
arms, etc. 

At 11.30 A.M., the dinner is inspected, and if properly 
cooked, ordered to be issued to the messes ; sweepers are 
piped and all work ceases ; decks are cleared, and the mess- 
cloths spread. At meridian, dinner is piped, and the boys 
sent to their messes as at the morning meal ; at 1 p.m., the 
" hands are again turned to," while the sweepers, in response 
to the pipes of the Boatswain and his mates, clean the decks ; 
the Poi't Watch is now formed and sent to the school-room, 
while the Starboard Watch is called on deck, and receive 
practical lessons in seamanship and the various exercises and 
drill. At 4 p.m., school is dismissed, decks cleared up, and at 
4.30 P.M., supper is piped ; tlie evening hours are devoted to 
recreation ; games of various kinds being provided for those 
disposed to avail themselves of the same. 

At fifteen minutes before sundown, the drum beats to quar- 
ters for inspection, when the usual notes are made, and re- 
ports given to the Executive and Captain. At ten minutes 
before sundown, the " call" is beaten, lower booms got ready 
for coming alongside, boats hooked on, Quartermasters stand 
by their colors, and at the third roll of the drum the booms 
are rigged in, boats hoisted, colors hauled down, and the boys 
are called to stand by their hammocks, when they assemble in 
their own parts of the ship, and hammocks being piped down, 
they are removed to the Berth-Deck, and hung on hooks bear- 
ing their respective numbers. 

The remainder of the evening is devoted to recreation, all 
work being laid aside for the day. At 7.30 p.m., the boys 
are assembled for evening exercises, which are held in the 
school-room, consisting of singing and prayer, conducted by 
the Instructor. 

At 8 P.M., the tattoo is beaten. Boatswain and mates pipe 
down, the boys are sent to their hammocks, the " anchor 
watch " is set for the night, all unauthorized lights and galley- 
fires are reported "out " by the Master-at-Arms, and the night 
reports of the petty-oflicers as to the condition of their several 
departments are made to the Executive At one bell (S.30 
P.M.), all loud talking must cease ; the bertn-deck is in charge 
of the ship's Corporals for the night, wlio keep watch there 
until regularly relieved, paying strict attention to the condi- 
tion of the lights, and inspecting the ship below the spar-deck 



576 NEW YOKK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS. 

every half hour ; being particularly careful that no irregulari- 
ties occur on the decks in their charge. 

Every boy when received on board is cleansed, and a com- 
plete outfit given him of clothing, suitable for the weather 
and season of the year ; he is given a number and a station 
on the watch, quarter, and fire-bells ; he is detailed to a cer- 
tain mess, and placed in a certain boat, while he is, when ad- 
mitted to the school-room, placed in such classes as his abili- 
ties will admit of. In all the maneuvers and exercises he 
must be at his station ; his number at the gun must be filled, 
his station aloft must be supplied, and his absence from any of 
these duties is at once detected ; no idle hands are permitted, 
no one is without a duty ; from the time that the lad receives 
his number, which is immediately on his admission into the 
ship, he is entirely under control and subject to orders. 

The ship's company is divided into two watches, called Port 
and Starboard, and these are sub-divided into first and second 
parts, forming quarter watches, which facilitates at times the 
duty of the ship. There are other sub-divisions, into which 
the boys are separated according to their stations, as follows : 
Forecastle-men, foretop-men, maintop-men, mizzentop-men 
and afterguard. Each of these divisions are headed by a first 
and second Captain, the first Captain bein^ in the Starboard 
"Watch, and the second Captain in the Port Watch. All orders 
to be executed in a certain part of the ship are issued to the 
Captain of the same, whose duty it becomes to see that the 
boys stationed under him perform them, reporting to the ofii- 
cer of the deck when finished. 

Precautions are taken against fire, by having stations for 
fire-quarters and duties assigned every ofiicer, seaman, and 
boy on board, with frequent drilling at quelling this danger- 
ous element. 

Divine service is held on Sunday in the school-room at 10 
A.M., and again in the evening at 6.30 p.m., the peculiar relig- 
ious tenets of all respected, and religious instruction imparted 
by both Protestant and Catholic clergymen, who are grantea 
access to the ship for this purpose at all times. 

Nothing has been left undone that would enhance the 
comfort of the boys or assist them in their studies. Every 
encouragement is held out to them, and liberty on shore and 
other privileges granted to the deserving, while advancement 
to the grade of petty ofiicer awaits the ambitious pupil, ' Posi- 
tions, though they entail an additional responsibility, bring 



THE INDUSTRIAL SCHOOL AND THE SCHOOL-SHIP. 577 

with them certain privileges and distinctions which make 
them objects of desire to the aspiring lad. 

The food furnished the boys is ot a good quality and the 
supply is ample, and provided in accordance witli the su^es- 
tions of a medical officer of acknowledged ability. Boys 
from a few wealthy families have been admitted whose par- 
ents pay $10 per month for their subsistence and instruction. 
It is probable that an independent ship could be made to pay as 
well as an academy. The boys take great pleasure in going 
aloft to spread or furl the sails. We saw from a distance a 
hundred or less of them engaged in this exercise. The spars, 
tackling, and flapping sails, united to the rapid movement of 
the boys, presented the appearance of a handful of black ants 
caught and struggling for dear life amid the meshes of a 
great cob-web. 

Much interest is being manifested in all parts of the coun- 
try in the great undertaking, as is frequently shown by the 
nmnerons letters I'eceived from this and adjacent States, to- 
gether with the visits received from many distinguished citi- 
zens, all of whom are unanimous in their approbation of this 
philanthropic enterprise. Delegates from adjacent States 
have journeyed some distance to examine into the leading 
features of this Institution, and returned to their own cities to 
indorse the movement and recommend a like action on the 
part of their authorities. One has well said : 

" The Commissioners deserve the thanks of the community 
for having added this to the many other noble public chari- 
ties which are receiving the benefit of their wise and efficient 
administration. It would be difficult to exaggerate the ad- 
vantages likely to accrue to the public from a benevolence 
which, receiving these neglected, vagrant, and degraded boys, 
shall shield them for a season from the rough blasts of temp- 
tation, teach them their duty to God and man, impart to them 
the principles of a noble science, train them to skill in the ap- 
plication of those principles, and, finally, opening to them a 
path of honorable usefidness, shall bid them go forth and 
walk therein, to the honor of God and the benefit of their 
fellow menf- /The very qualities of sagacity and daring, of 
earnestness had enthujsiasm, which, under their former evil 
training, were likely to ronder them a pest as well as a terror 
to the community, will no doubt, in numerous instances, con- 
stitute a vigorous impulse to push them forward and give them 
success in their new career of virtue, honor, and usefulness." 







CHAPTER X. 



NEW YOEK INSTITUTIONS ON STATEN ISLAND, 



SAILOR'S SNUG HARBOR. 



(SUtten Island.) 



SAn.oRS, tliongli a very useful and industrious class, rank, 
among the most reckless and improvident of the world 
Withont them the commerce of tlie world could not be con- 
ducted ; and while a few of them have always been noted 
for their intelligence, piety, and thrift, the vast majority have 
ever been literally afl,oat — creatures of accident, drifting 
hither and thither wherever caprice or fancy might carry 
tliem They rarely liave many friends, except those who 
participate in their vices, and "help to squander their hard 
earnings. Sailors are proverbially recl^less of health, exces- 
sively given to dissipation and sensuality while oi shore, 
exposed to the vicissitudes of changing climates while at sea; 
add to these, then, the danger of other casuiilties, and their 



sailor's snug harbor. 579 

life- long improvidence, and it will be clear that most of them 
must early become inmates of hospitals, and objects of 
charity. More than two hundred thousand sailors annually 
enter the New York harbor, many of whom are in need 
of medical or surgical aid. To provide for this want the 
Marine Hospital was established, and the Seaman's Ee- 
treat founded. Still a place of rest where the crippled or 
worn-out tar might in quietude spend the evening twilight of 
his career was greatly needed. It remained for a noble 
hearted bachelor-sailor (more careful and successful than 
most of his fellows), to establish for these cast-oif wrecks of 
the sea a home, unrivalled in the world in the beauty of its 
location, and the abundance of its comforts. 

Captain Robert Richard Randall, of New York City, by 
the provision of his will, dated June 1, 1801, bequeathed 
(certain specific legacies being satisfied) all the residue of his 
estate, real and personal, to the Chancellor of the State, the 
Mayor and Recorder of the city, the President of the Cham- 
ber of Commerce, the President of the Marine Society, the 
Senior Ministers of the Episcopal and of the Presbyterian 
Churches of New York, and to their successors in ofiice 
respectively, to be received by them in trust, and applied to 
the erection of an Asylum or Marine Hospital, to lie called 
" The Sailor's Snug Ilarbor," the same to be opened as soon 
as the income of the estate should, in the judgment of the 
trustees, be sufticient to support fifty seamen. Mr. Randall's 
real estate was situated in what is now the First and Fif- 
teenth wards of the city of New York, and consisted of 
certain building lots in the former, and of twenty-one acres 
of land in the latter. The trustees were duly incorporated 
February 6, ISOti. Protractive and expensive suits, brought 
by the relatives of the testator, prevented the trustees from 
carrying out his wishes for many years after his decease. 
The Uiiited States' Supreme Court finally decided in favor of 
-the tnist in March, 1830. The Asylum was to have been 
-erected on his up-town property, situated south of what is now 
Union Square, and between Fourth and Sixth avenues, but 
the unexpected growth of the city, and the consequent in- 
crease in the value of real estate, induced the trustees to lease 
the city property and locate the Institution elsewhere. The 
estate at the decease of the testator was valued at about 
$30,000, but it is now estimated at about $2,000,000. It 
may be interesting to know that the colossal retail store of 



580 m:w yoek and its institutions. 

A. T. Stewart, Esq., corner Tenth street and Broadway, stands 
on a part of this property, and that an annnal ground-rent is 
paid by this gentleman oi" about $35,000. The income of the 
estate is still steadily increasing. In May, 1831, the trustees 
purchased a farm of 130 acres, to which twenty-one acres 
were subsequently added, situated on the northern shore of 
Staten Island, for the sum of $6,000. 

The corner-stone of the Asylum was laid with appropriate 
exercises October 21, 1831, and on the first day of August, 
1833, the building was formally opened for the reception of 
the tliirty sailors approved by a committee appointed^for that 
purpose. The main building consists of a central, 65 by 100- 
feet, three stories above the basement, and of two winga 
51 by 100 feet each, two and a half stories high, the parts 
being connected with corridors 40 feet long by 16 wide^ 
giving a total frontage of 247 feet. The building stands on 
a graceful eminence ; its front is of marble, with a majestic 
portico ornamented with eight massive Ionic columns, pre- 
senting a palatial aspect as seen from the bay. In the rear 
of the main edifice is a three-story brick, 80 feet square, erected 
in 1854, in the basement of which are the Steward's ofiice 
and the great kitchen of the establishment, furnished with 
an ample supply of steam-kettles. The first floor of this- 
building contains the dining-rooms, and the other floors con- 
tain dormitories, which are mostly large, square rooms, con- 
taining four beds each. This building is connected with the 
main edifice by a covered passage-way. A little to the right 
of this stands the chapel, a fine brick, with seating for several 
hundred persons, and adjoining stands a well-arranged par- 
sonage for the use of the chaplain. Further back stand the 
waslf-house and' the hake-house, each two stories, of brick, 
and well arranged. Still further to the rear stands the 
hospital, erected twenty years ago. It is a well-built three- 
story brick, with heavy 'granite trimmings, and contains space 
for seventy-five beds. Sixty-one persons are now in the hos- 
pital, some of whom have been under treatment thirty years. 
Our attention was called to grandfather Morris, a colored 
sailor, one hundred and six years old, who has been in the- 
" Harbor" over a quarter of a century. We hoped to get some 
reminiscences oi the Institution from him, but his mind was- 
too much absorbed in better things. He remembers George 
Whitefield and other eminent, men of the good lang syne. 
He can only talk of Jesus and Heaven. He expects to mak& 



sailor's snug hakbgk, 581 

but Oiie more short voyage, and reach in due time tho haven 
wliere there are no sliipwrecks or misfortunes, and where 
people are all of a color. We were next taken to Captain 
Webster, in another ward, who thinks himself one hundred 
and eight years old, but whom the steward informed ns was 
ninety-six. lie is buoyant and cheerful, full of conversation 
and humor, and speaks of a " good hope " also for the life to 
come. 

The " Harbor " contains at this writing four hundred in- 
mates besides the officei-s and help. Liberty is granted the 
inmates to visit friends, and go to the city or elsewhere as 
they may reasonably desire. Tlie main building contains a 
reading-room f urnislied with iiles of papers and periodicals ; 
also a library of about a thousand volumes, containing many 
excellent and solid works which exhibit the wear of much 
reading. An indispensable prerequisite to admission is that 
the applicant has sailed five years under the American fla^. 
This, coupled with disease and poverty, formerly proved sufh- 
cient, but the late war has so multiplied the number of crip- 
pled seaman, that the trustees have been compelled to be 
more cautious in their admissions. Most of the inmates live 
to advanced years. Tlieir home is well conducted, and the 
finest of the kind in the world. The buildings are all that 
could be desired, and the grounds, which are richly cultivated 
and thickly set with fruit and shade-trees, are as charming 
as nature and art could well make them. About twenty- 
three acres, containing the buildings and gardens, are enclosed 
by a massive but handsome iron' fence, which cost over 
eighty thousand dollars. The iron was cast in England, and 
the fence rests upon a deep and solid foundation, with 
capped posts of the best granite. Much of the farm is still 
covered with heavy timber. In the front yard, at a conve- 
nient distance from the front entrance, stands a white marble 
monument, erected by the trustees August 21, 1834, to the 
memory of the founder of the Institution, whose I'emains 
were then removed from their first resting-place. 

The affairs of the society are managed by the ex-officio trus- 
tees named in the will, who annually elect their own oflicers. 
The salaried officers are the governor and his assistant, the 
treasurer, agent, resident chaplain, and physician. These em- 
ploy such other help as is needed, with consent of the trustees. 
The ofticei-s are kindly disposed, too indulgent to the inmates 
if anything, and affable to visitors. The Institution is open 



582 NEW YORK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS. 

to visitors every day of the week except the Sabbath, and 
every unoccupied sailor on the premises is ready with char- 
acteristic politeness to escort them through the buildings and 
grounds. The basement of the main edihce is mostly devoted 
to workshops. Here all who are able carry on the basket or 
mat making with their own capital, the fruit of which fur- 
nishes means for travel and for other private uses. Nearly 
all earn something. 

The chaplain was absent when we visited the Harbor, but 
his praise was in the mouths of many of the inmates. He 
holds service twice each Sabbath, and offers public prayers 
twice each day. The By-Laws, which are an excellent code, 
make it the duty of each inmate to attend all the religious 
services unless excused by the governor, for sickness or other 
sufficient cause, yet we were informed that less than half 
ordinarily attended the Sabbath services, A stricter disci- 
pline would be a decided improvement. Eighty or ninety of 
the inmates profess religion, some of whom attend and take 
part in the Fulton-street prayer-meeting occasionally. The 
former chaplain was shot on the grounds by one of the old 
seamen, who afterwards shot himself. The man is now be- 
lieved to have been guilty of a previous murder, and to have 
become partially insane from a sense of guilt and an appre- 
hension that God would not pardon him. 



SEAMEN'S FUND AND RETREAT. 
{Quarantine Landing, Staten Island.) 

S early as 1754, the colonial government of New York 
%. established quarantine measures. A tax was imposed 
upon all seamen and passengers entering the port of 
New York, and with the fund thus provided, hos- 
pital buildings were established, first on Governor's and after- 
wards on Bedloe's Island. The establishment was removed 
to Staten Island about 1799. The tax thus collected from 
passengers and seamen was paid into a joint fund, ander 
the control *'of the Commissioners of Health of the city 
of New York, and called the "Mariner's Fund." The 




SEAMEN'S FUND AND RETREAT. 583 

funds tlins created, besides providing the quarantine accom- 
niodations, were disposed of bv the Legislature in establishing 
city dispensaries, assisthig the '^Society for the Eeformation of 
Juvenile Delinquents, eta, etc. The manifest injustice of tax- 
ing seamen for quarantine purposes, and in distributing their 
hard earnings among other charities in which they had no 
special interest, was discovered by commercial men of New 
York over forty years ago, and an effort was made to abolish 
this long-standing abuse. The Legislature of 1831 created a 
board of trustees to collect these funds and enaploy them 
exclusively for the benefit of seamen. It was believed at 
that time that over three hundred and forty thousand dollars 
had been paid by passengers and seamen into the fund, above 
what had been used for'their benefit, and the money still ou 
hand at that time they were authorized to receive from the 
State treasury, which amounted to ovei- twelve thousand dol- 
lars. The first meeting of the board of trustees of the Sea- 
men's Fund and Retreat was held at the Mayor's ofiice. May 
9, 1831, and measures were soon taken to maintain all dis- 
eased seamen in the Marine Hospital, Staten Island, and in 
the New York Hospital. After examining several farms on 
Staten Island, the trustees purchased forty acres of land of 
Cornelius Corson, fronting on the New York bay, for $10,000. 
The land contained a farm-house, to which it\vas proposed 
to add an additional building for the reception of patients. 
The new hospital in process of erection on the summit of 
the elevation was overtaken with a storm so violent as to 
throw down its brick walls when they were nearly completed. 
On the 12th of June, 1832, the executive committee reported 
the completion of the new building, and about the middle 
of the following month it was occupied. As the accommo- 
dations continued inadequate, a plan was formed for the 
erection of the main buildings now in use, which are situated 
much nearer the shore. 

The corner-stone of the present hospital was laid July 4, 
1834, by Samuel Swartout, Esq., collector of the port, and 
president of the board of trustees, assisted by the architect, 
Mr. A. P. Maybee. The address was delivered by the Rev. 
John E. Miller, Rev. Henry Chase, pastor of the" Mariner's 
Church, and other clergymen assisting in the services. This 
hospital consists of a main structure fifty feet square and 
three stories high, witl>two wings each seventy-six by thirty- 
four feet, built of hammered blue stone, trimmed with gran- 



^^i-^ 



584 NEW YORK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS. 

ite, and covered with brazier's copper. The central building 
and south wing were completed in January, 1836, and the 
north wing in 1852. The location of the Institution is one 
of surpassing beauty and commanding prominence, and has 
been admired by the hundreds of thousands who sail annually 
through the broad bay. The principal building stands 
nearly in the center of an arc, the lower point of which ex- 
tends to the Narrows, and the upper to the entrance of Kill 
Von KuU. From its windows the eye sweeps over the entire 
bay of New York, and searches for vanishing objects far out 
on the boiling Atlantic. Vessels from every quarter of the 
globe and of every variety and size, bearing the ensign of 
their own nationality, are constantly passing laden with the 
products of many lands. At one view is seen the majestic 
ocean steamer, leaving its track of foam, and sending billows 
to the shore on which the smaller vessels rock and gracefully 
nod oljeisance to their passing superior ; and at another, coast 
steamers, sloops, brigs, schooners, and the playful yacht may 
be seen to skim, rock, and toy in the breeze and sunhght. 
A wider and richer view of the commerce of the world can 
rarely be obtained on any continent. In nothing did the 
founders of this Institution evince more taste and judgment 
than iu the selection of its location. The invalid sailor who 
■cannot leave his room can still breathe the bracing air of 
the sea, and look out upon this immense picture of nature 
and art, which contains more of beauty and attraction for 
him than all the rest of the world. He almost forgets his 
malady and confinement, while the sight of his chosen ele- 
ment, decorated with the bright flags, whitened with the sails 
of a world-wide commerce, is spread out before him. 

In 1841, the brick building on the hill, first erected, was 
fitted up for the treatment of insane patients, and a suit- 
able enclosure thrown around it. An oven for baking and a 
large wash-house were also added the same year. In Septem- 
ber, 1842, the granite edifice situated on the north-east corner 
of the grounds, since occupied by the resident physician, was 
erected. 

An association of ladies, styled "The Mariner's Family 
Industrial Society," was incorporated April 6, 1849, having 
for its object the relief of the destitute families of seamen. 
By an act of Legislature, passed March 17, 1851, a board 
of trustees were created for its management, consisting of 
New York City ofticials and the Board of Councillors of the 



seamen's fund and retreat. 585- 

Mariner's Family Industrial Society. In June, 1852, the 
corner-stone of the Asylum, ordered by the Legislature the- 
previous year, and which had been contemplated in the legis- 
lation of 1847, was laid. The plan was to provide a suitable 
building for the use of such "destitute, sick, and infirm 
mothers, wives, sisters, daughters, or widows of seamen, a& 
gave satisfactory proof that they had paid the hospital tax 
for the term of two years." 

Its location is on the south side of the farm, at the highest 
point of the rise from the bay, and about fifteen hundred, 
feet from it. The building is a square brick structure five 
stories high, witli accommodations for sixty inmates. The 
five acres of ground connected with it are finely cultivated^ 
producing an ample supply of vegetables and fruit. The 
view from the upper windows is rich and varied. The eye 
sweeps over three cities, the Bay from Coney Island to the 
Palisades, over much of Staten Island, Long Island, and New 
Jersey. The Legislature, by act of April 12, 1854, directed 
that ten per cent, of certain receipts of the Trustees of the 
Seaman's Fund and Retreat should be paid to the trustees 
of this Asylum, which arrangement still continues. 

The Seaman's Retreat has been favored with wise and 
pious oflicei's. In 1851, a Temperance Society was organized 
by the Superintendent, and during the six years following, 
3,200 seamen signed the total abstinence pledge. Prayer- 
meetings have been held weekly most of the time for many 
years. The published report of the Institution for I860 
declared that more than one hundred seamen had given evi- 
dence of conversion during the last three years. Besides the 
services of a regular chaplain, the Institution is occasionally 
visited by Pastor He! land and Pastor Hedstrom, who min- 
ister to the Scandinavian sailors in their own language. 
These services are often seasons of thrilling interest ; the ser- 
mon being supplemented by the prayers and exhortations of 
the sailors, and not uufrequently attended with the tears and 
sobs of the impenitent. Many who have entered the Retreat 
in quest of physical remedies only have found to their great 
joy the balm of the soul, and returned to their occupation 
with' aspirations and hopes hitherto unknown As our for- 
eign mission work in the past has been greatly retarded by 
the dissipation and impiety of sailors representing Christian 
countries, may we not hope for the day when their conse- 
crated energies shall make them rank among its most potent 



-G^8- NEW YORK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS. 

auxiliaries ? The conversion of a humble sailor often sets 
in motion a series of moral influences which sweep around 
the world, and may never, never cease their vibrations. How 
powerful the motive to labor for this class of persons ! Some 
of its surgeons have been men of remarkable piety. Thomas 
C. Moifatt, M.D., who expired December, 1869, and who was 
the fourth physician to fall a victim of ship-fever contracted 
in discharge of duty, was a most amiable and saintly man. 
During the fifteen years that he had the medical charge of 
the Hospital, his religious influence was as marked as his pro- 
fessional. Skillful as he was in prescribing for an enfeebled 
body, he was no less wise in administering to a disordered 
soul. His labors in the chapel, at the prayer-meeting, and 
temperance meeting ; his tender, thoughtful, and affectionate 
treatment of all his patients, had so won the confidence and 
love of all, that when the long procession came to take the 
last look at his remains, many bi-ave hearts broke down with 
emotion, and turned away to weep. Few in his position 
have, in so eminent a manner, exemplified the excellence of 
the Christian religion. 

The Institution is provided with the current periodicals of 
the day, and has a circulating library of about a thousand 
volumes. The inmates are for the most part expected to 
recover. Incurables are transferred to Sailor's Snug Harbor, 
or to other Institutions if possible ; if not they are ]3rovided 
for here. Fifty-six thousand disabled seamen have been 
admitted into the Institution since its establishment in 1831, 
most of whom have l^een cured and returned to the sea. 

The grounds also contain a handsome cemetery, situated 
on an eminence at the western end of the grounds. Here 
the hardy tai-s find a resting place by the side of their com- 
rades when the storms of life are past. 



END. 




riie New York Tribune nays :— " Our Home Physician ' is a well piepaiel 

thinne < >£ tlie chiif facts and method-: I'f treatiient th:it aie known to modi rn mt'dicine. 
Dr. B ar I lias brouL,^lit to his task intelligent zeal, an unusual candor, and a know 
ledge of what is known in \\i< luoffs^ion. Whe her for the rules of health or the 
emergencies of illness, tlds book is a comprehensis e, comprehensible, and trustworthy 
vade mtoum. As a lompend of the theory and practice of medicine, it is the best 
that we know. 

THE NEW HANDY-BOOK OF FAMILY MEDICINE. 
Get it, and save Money, Health, and Liife. 




TO THE ART OF rRESEIiriyir HEALTH AND TREATiyO DISEASE,; 

With Plain Advice for all Medical and Snrgical Emergencies of the Family, 

The irJioU- is baaed on the most JReeent and the Hifjhest Authorities, and brought 
down to the Latest Dates. 

By QEO. M. BEARD, A.M., M.D. 

[GRADUiTB OF YiLE COLLKOE >ND OF THE New YorK ColI-KGK OF PHVSICIiNS AND SlKOEOMS] J 

Lecturer on Nervou? Diseases in the University of the City of New York ; Follow of the New 
iTork Academy of Medicine : Member of the New York Conuty Medical 
Society. 



BENJAMIN HOWARD, A.M., M.D., Prof, of Surgery. 

D. B. ST. JOAN BOOSA, A.M., M.D., Prof, of Diseases of Eye and Ear. 
J. B. ncXTER, M.D., on Dls-ases of Women and Children. 
A. D. RUt'KWELL, M.D., and others. 



The Publishers present " Oun IIome Phtsician " with the assurance that it is the most 
important and valuable Medical Guide ever oflcrod to the American public. To this admirablo 



public as the result of a large and extended practice in New York City. From the author's preface 



work our author has given careful study, investiiration and experience, and now presents it lo the 
■ 3f a ■ ..,..-•...- ^ 

we learn: 

'■ This book has been prepared to meet a want that has been long and widely felt— of a single 
work which should give a comprehensive and accurate knowledge of Medical scieuceof the present 
day, in as much detail as can be useful to those not medically educated. I have left no stone un- 
turned to make the work fully represent the best and mosc recent opinions and experiences of the 
leading authorities of our day in the various departments, all of which are brought down to the 
most recent dates. Diseases, their symptoms and treatment, and in fact nearly every department 
of Medical science, has changed wonderfully during the past twenty years, and Medical works and 
authors that were once considered authorities arc now worse than useless, tending only to mis- 
lead with dangerous results. 

"This work not only includes all that has ever been attempted in similar works, but also 
several hundred new remedies, new systems of treatment, new diseases and new subjects in the 
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are yet among the people those who have a blind faith in some school or exclusive system of 
treatment ; to all such let me say that the wise i)hysician of our time belongs to no " school," no 
'"ism," no "pathy," but uses for his patients all things which have proved to be beneficial. On 
this principle this work is based. The best i)hysicians of our day are not narrow or bigoted, as 
some suppose, but are the most liberal and i)](iL'!rssivf of men. 1 have written in the work just 
what I say every day to my patients, in my ixipular es-ays, and in my lectures before lycenms and 
collcKes. I have here said just what your family i)hysician would tell you if he had th"e time and 
occasion to explain the ditferent diseases, their symptoms and treatments. My aim has also been 
to make the work so clear that the wayfaring' man mitrht not err therein, and yet s.) thorough and 
exhaustive that the educated physician should find in it much to perfect his knowledge and refresh 
his aiemory." 

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Testimonials for Headley's Sacred Heroes & Martyrs. 



e present volume, which is a com- 
priests, kings and apostles. The author 



ir, Dui niinerto uninieresiuig iuals, are luuuu lu tju^ncoo an uuc^pci^bcu oig- 



Rev. HENRY ^VARD REBCHER, Pastor Plymoutli Cliurcli, Brook- 
lyn, Editor of Clirisitiaii Union, says: The favorable ruccpiiou of Mr. Headley's 
■•bacreu Mountaius" doubtless suijgestt'd the preparation of the 
mentary, in ail expanded form, upon the lives of propliets 

has endeavored, with the aid of modern research and scholarship, to develop the fragmentary records 
contained in the Scriptures, into something like a connected narrative. After reading these bio- 
graphical commentaries, for such they are, it is with a fresh interest that the Bible itself is opened, 
and oftentimes familiar, but hitherto uninteresting texts, are found to possess an unexpected sig- 
niftcance; while local 
dents, which before 
meaningless, have acqui 
a fresh ana individual "* 
acter. 

Rev. Bishop E. S. JANES, of New 
York, savs: In mv iudtrnient this is a very valu- 
able work. 
The younr 
\ng a'nd very ; 

Rev. PHII^HP SCHAFF, D.D., CliurcU Historian, Editor Lange's 
Commentary, and Professor In Union Tkeological ^euIinary, says: the ba- 
cred Heroes and Martyrs of the Bible >.re a noble theme tor the well- 
known descriptive powers of the author, and well calculated to inspire 
the reader with enthusiasm for the highest and most enduring order of 
greatness. The book is a valuable contribution to our popular religious 
literature. 

Rev. JOSEPH CITMMINGS, D.D., President Wesleyan U»iiversity, 
=iav« ■ Whoever leads men .vith a proper spirit to the study of the scenes, incidents, ar d characters 
of the Bible renners a gn-at service to the cause of religion. We consider this to be the great merit 
of Mr Headiey's new work, and we recommend it as worthy of general attention and favor. 



V. Bishop E. S. J A INKS, oi r«ew 

iays : In my judgment tliis is a very valu- ^^ 

:. Mr. Headley wields a very graphic pi n. ^i/ 
g will find the book exceedingly interest- ""^^ 
•ery instructive. I commend it cordially. Kj^ • 




YZyt-i^' 



^/o^>-^-4^^ 



^-^^>^^2.^<^-^>r>-i^. 



X 



Rev. B. W. PATTERSON, D.D., Pastor Sd Presb. Church, Chicago, 

says : The '• Sacred Heroes and Martyrs,' by J . T. Heailley, is written in the author's best style, 

and is highly interesting and iu-structive. I trust it may obtain i 

strengthen the faith and courage of many readers, 'f 

Scripture record, are the great heroes and martyrs of 

the Church; and their characters and acts, and even 

their imperfections, if studied in the light of Mr. Head- 



wide circulation. It will serve to 
The Heroes and Martyrs set before us in the 



'^.^/te^ 



(A^^^ir>\y J 



ley's graphic sketches, can hardly fail to help others 
in following them who, through faith and patience, in- 
herit the promises. 

Rev. E. J. GOODSPEED, D.D., Pastor 2d Baptist Church, Chicago, 

saj-s : Our old favorite who wrote so graphically of the Sacred Mountains, J. T. Headley, ha* given 
us another volume of a similar character, upon Sacred Heroes and Martyrs. He has availed hiniself 
of all the modern advances in scholarship and knowledge of the Word of God, to clothe with vivid- 
ness and reality the characters of Scripture forever sacred in the veneration of mankind. His 
gorgeousnessof imagery revels, and is at home, among the mighty men and sublime latidscapes of 
the ancient past. A soberer pen would fail to reproduce the men and their surroundings in just pro- 
portions and coloring. We welcome, thcrefons and heartily commend this noble volume, with its 
fresh illustrations, clear type and handsome binding, hoping •■-"* — - '' ^''' ""^'° '^^^'■'' ""'"' 



that our dear old Bible, ever new 



IJ- 




because so human and y 
Divine, and hence adapted 
to our profoundest necessi- 
ties, may become yet more 
thoroughly understood and 
universally read. 

Rev. DANIEL. STEEL.E, D.D., President of Genesee College, N. Y., 

eavs : It gives me great pleasure to tliark j uu lur the service which you hav..- done to Christian lit- 
erature by the publication of '"Headley's Sacred Heroes and Martyrs." I deem this work the crown- 
ing effort of its distinguished author, and one on which his reputation in the future will chiefly rest. 
For the most enduring literary fame is that which is connected with the Word of God which abideth 
forever. I hail it as one of the most favorable signs of the times that our greatest writers are turn- 
ing their attention to the Bible and are investing its grand themes with the halo of their genius. 

Mr. Headley wields a magical pen. His " Kapoleon and his Marshals," read In my co.lege 
days, gave me impressions so vivid, that 
they have never been erased from my 
memory. The descriptive power of this 
writer," the charm of his style, and the 
life-like pictures portrayed by his pen. 
render him an cspicial favorite with thr 
T-oung. 




